Antimicrobial use in wean to market pigs in the United States assessed via voluntary sharing of proprietary data

Abstract

Data on antimicrobial use were collected for the 2016 and 2017 calendar years from swine producers in the United States. Nine large systems, collectively producing over 20 million market pigs annually, voluntarily provided data to advance understanding of antimicrobial use in the industry and to support antimicrobial stewardship initiatives. The scope of the study was limited to growing pigs, and the granularity of data varied across the systems. Data were summarized both qualitatively and quantitatively by antimicrobial class, active ingredient and route of administration (injection, water and feed). Data on the purpose of administration, doses and durations of administration were not available, but some information was provided by the responsible veterinarians. Aggregate data were similar both qualitatively and quantitatively in 2016 and 2017, although marked changes between years were evident within systems for some antimicrobials. Antimicrobial use (by weight) was dominated by the tetracycline class (approximately 60% of total use). Antimicrobials in classes categorized as critically important constituted 4.5% and 5.3% of total use in 2016 and 2017, respectively. In both years, fluoroquinolone (0.23%, 0.46%) and 3rd generation cephalosporin (0.15%, 0.11%) use collectively accounted for <1% of total use. Administration was predominantly oral in feed and water, and injection comprised approximately 2% of use overall, but around 12% for critically important antimicrobials. There was considerable variability among systems in patterns of antimicrobial use. This pilot project demonstrates the feasibility of acquiring antimicrobial use data via voluntary sharing. It is currently being expanded among larger swine production systems, and further efforts to enable confidential data sharing and benchmarking for smaller producers are being pursued by the swine industry. Recognized biases in the data caution against over‐interpretation of these data as an index of national use.

Piglet Gut and in-Barn Manure from Farms on a Raised without Antibiotics Program Display Reduced Antimicrobial Resistance but an Increased Prevalence of Pathogens

“…This contrasts with the Canadian practices shown in our study where nursery animals were treated less with tetracyclines (25% for non-RWA and 4% for RWA), while more prevalent treatments included antifolates for non-RWA (64%) and β-lactams for RWA (54%). Furthermore, drug delivery routes in the USA operations were either by feed, water, or injection, whereas Canadian drug administration was predominantly by injection [12,14]. Our drug-use data showed a 9-fold overall reduction in the amount of antibiotics used for treating piglets in RWA barns compared to non-RWA barns, where these drugs were used mainly for the treatment of limping, scours, and several other classes of injury.…”

“…A study conducted in the USA by Davies et al (2020), reporting all antibiotic treatments between 2016 and 2017 from nine participating non-RWA pig barns, showed that 60% of antibiotic treatments were allocated to nursery pigs (3-10 weeks of age) and 40% to finishing pigs [14]. The authors also found that among the various antimicrobial agent classes (including tetracyclines, lincosamides, pleuromutilins, β-lactams, aminoglycosides, macrolides, and quinolones) that were used to treat pigs from weaning to market in the USA, 60% of the total drugs used were tetracyclines, 8% β-lactams, 3.5% aminoglycosides, and 3% macrolides.…”

Antimicrobial resistance in integrated agroecosystems: State of the science and future opportunities

“…Despite ample evidence demonstrating manures as a source of AMR to agroecosystems, efforts to assess AMR in animal production have focused on antibiotic use (Davies & Singer, 2020), and beyond research efforts, strategies to monitor AMR input to the environment from animal production do not exist. Risk assessment tools based on AMR depend on models to predict environmental spread of resistance, and thus knowledge of AMR inputs to agroecosystems from manure sources is foundational to advancing our knowledge of the risk to animal and public health.…”

Faecal concentrations of ceftiofur metabolites in finisher pigs administered intramuscularly with ceftiofur

“…Antimicrobials have been used in swine production, mainly in piglets and finisher pigs, to treat or prevent production‐related diseases as well as for growth promotion for more than 60 years (Cromwell, 2002; Lekagul et al., 2019). Ceftiofur, a third‐generation cephalosporin with a broad‐spectrum antimicrobial activity (NCBI, 2020), is commonly used in the USA to treat respiratory and other bacterial infections, such as enteritis, polyarthritis, and meningitis (Davies & Singer, 2020; Hornish & Kotarski, 2002). Ceftiofur is not commonly used outside the USA, particularly in the European Union, because of regulations associated with the use of third‐generation cephalosporins in food animals (More, 2020).…”