Farm antibiotics abuse on the rise
Antimicrobials, including antibiotics, and antiviral drugs, are essential for treating and controlling infectious diseases in both humans and livestock.
By Patrick Musira
ANTIBIOTICS — the miracle drugs of the last 70 years — are fast losing their potency. These medicines that are supposed to help fight infections and heal by killing or slowing down growth of bacteria, worked so well helping humans and animals survive many life-threatening infections.
The tide has turned and the bacteria are fighting back and becoming stronger.
“We have started losing that battle against infectious diseases,” said dairy farmer Ajs Kirk. “We have seen resistance to some strains of mastitis,” the successful dairy farmer told this publication recently.
Kirk, who runs Reddane Farming, about 30 kilometres south of the capital Harare, said this mastitis resistance was now a problem and “training of farmers and use of veterinary officers need to be intensified”.
Antibiotics are essential for treating infections in animals, but excessive, improper and inappropriate use of the drugs is a problem.
However, a considerable amount of antibiotics are used in healthy animals to prevent infection or speed up growth but “farmers need to dramatically cut the amount of antibiotics administered to their livestock because of this threat to both humans and the livestock, according to veterinary and medical experts.
The concern is that some livestock farmers — dairy, beef and small stock — are needlessly driving up levels of antibiotic use, leading to new resistance in the livestock.
Veterinary Services Department’s veterinary public health division senior director, Jairus Muchakwa, said antimicrobials, including antibiotics, and antiviral drugs, are essential for treating and controlling infectious diseases in both humans and livestock.
“Continued access to effective, affordable antimicrobial agents is thus very important as antimicrobial use has significantly assisted to minimise mortalities among livestock in the production cycle.
“The stress associated with domestication makes livestock very vulnerable to infectious diseases, thus the microbial are a necessity in the raising of domestic animals,” Machakwa said.
Muchakwa said the government, through the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ), insists that all medicines — local or imported — be registered first, and in the process of registration, the labelling in local languages or at least English, is a requirement.
However, in recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in resistance to the antimicrobials used against common human and animal infectious illnesses, thereby reducing treatment options, and affecting health systems and economies of countries.
“The dangers are precisely overuse, misuse and abuse and the proliferation of counterfeits,” notes World Health Organisation (WHO) communications officer Olivia Lawe-Davies, explaining that these lead to the problem that has become known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR.)
When antibiotics are prescribed, it is very important to follow instructions as given.
“If the infectious agents or germs that cause disease become resistant to the antimicrobials we use,” said Lawe-Davies, people may be forced to turn to other “more effective and, ironically, more dangerous” ones to control those germs, and this at a higher cost.
“But I must say this is easier said than done,” she acknowledges, explaining there has not been new antimicrobials developed in the last decade, leaving AMR as a serious public health threat.
Antimicrobial resistance is a process that generates future problems for treating infections in any sector.
Lawe-Davies explains that if a bacterial infection that can be treated with antibiotics is present in a farm and the bacteria become resistant, the infection can spread and affect more animals and the complete farm – including humans that come into contact with the animals.
AMR has increased due to misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medicines (like antibiotics) in humans and animals. The lack of national regulations about how, where and when to use antimicrobials in some countries are key factors. The increasing misuse of antibiotics as growth promoters and prophylaxis in farm animals is also a big factor generating bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and can spread to humans.
The WHO says ideally, countries should have a national integrated surveillance system to monitor which bacteria that cause disease in animals and humans are becoming resistant to treatment, and they should enact national regulations for the prudent use of antibiotics, including in the animal sector, avoiding their use as growth promoters and prophylaxis.
In dairy, “all milk factories should test milk for traces of any bacteria,” urges Kirk, adding: “I think all large processors already do this but unlicensed processors and off-farm sales could be a problem.”
The Department of Veterinary Services has a network of extension workers covering the whole country. .
Veterinary officer, Doctor Lawrence Binginya, controlling two provinces, said some farmers usually stock antibiotics but usually treat their animals without consulting veterinary officers after suspecting an outbreak of any disease!
“There’s need for more boots on the ground,” he said, explaining that retail outlets that sell veterinary pharmaceuticals should also give more awareness in the use of these drugs to farmers,
National Biotechnology Authority of Zimbabwe registrar and chief executive Jonathan Mufandaedza said countries can and should develop policies and national strategies to promote safe use of antimicrobials and infection control programmes.
“Extensive public education and awareness on preventing infection and reducing transmission can help curb AMR,” he said, explaining that “AMR misuse and abuse in both humans and veterinary practice may impact livestock farmers negatively.”
Lawe-Davies concurs, adding that challenges are related to people’s knowledge about the prudent use of antimicrobials. Everyone needs to be aware that antimicrobial resistance is a problem and that the use of antibiotics as growth promoters or prophylaxis is a bad approach. Farmers should be aware that if trends continue, increasing antibiotic resistance will mean that they will not have effective treatment for infections in animals in the future, and that will have a big impact on any farm.
Under the guidance of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the WHO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) tripartite partnership, the National Action Plan for Zimbabwe will be finished by mid this year.
“People have to be ready to assert their wishes when it comes to administering drugs to their livestock but should always be alert to the possibility that more drugs might mean more problems,” said OIE head of communications unit Catherine Bertrand Ferrandis, The fact is: AMR is a silent pandemic that is here to stay. Everyone, everywhere, can play a part in preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics by handling antibiotics with care.