Antibiotic use on German pig farms - A longitudinal analysis for 2011, 2013 and 2014.

To study antibiotic use in livestock in a temporal context with the development of antimicrobial resistance, long-term changes in antibiotic use must be mapped and their possible causes must be explored. Therefore, the present work assesses the changes in antibiotic use over time in German livestock husbandry. In addition, factors associated with antibiotic use were analyzed to identify possible strategies for further reducing antimicrobial usage.

[Antibiotic usage and antibiotic sales in Germany in 2011--the situation of drug usage in veterinary medicine].

To appreciate the significance of sales data of antibiotics, data on antibiotic consumption (which were collected for selected food-producing animals within the representative VetCAb pilot study in Germany in 2011) were extrapolated for the total German animal population, and subsequently compared to the antibiotic sales data, which were collected throughout Germany in 2011 for the first time and which were published by the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL). The extrapolation was realized based on the average dosage and the number of treatment units determined in the VetCAb pilot project for each active ingredient and animal species. It was extrapolated that 1302 tons of antimicrobial substances were consumed for treating cattle, pigs and broilers--this amount is accompanied by the amount of 1706 tons sold for all animal species.

Cross-sectional study on antibiotic usage in pigs in Germany.

To be able to analyze the relationship between the level of resistance and the use of antimicrobials, it is necessary to collect detailed data on antimicrobial usage. For this reason, data on antimicrobial use on 495 pig farms from entire Germany were collected and analyzed. In Germany, each application and dispensing of medicines to food-producing animals is documented in detail obligatorily by the veterinarian.

[Variables describing the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals].

In order to represent relationships between the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals and the extend of bacteria with resistance characteristics, it is necessary to have access to information about dispensary and consumption of antibiotic drugs. This does not only require suitable detection methods, but also the establishment of figures which adequately describe the use of antibiotics both on the level of the enterprise, respectively veterinarian, as well as in cumulative form. In various countries different calculations for the analysis of data on antibiotic use are applied, therefore the results are not always comparable.