Prevalence of antibiotic use for dogs and cats in United States veterinary teaching hospitals, August 2020

Abstract

BackgroundAwareness of prescribing practices helps identify opportunities to improve antibiotic use (AU).ObjectivesTo estimate AU prevalence in dogs and cats in U.S. veterinary teaching hospitals (VTHs) and identify antibiotic drugs commonly prescribed, indications for use, and evidence of bacterial infection.AnimalsMedical record data were collected from dogs and cats examined at 14 VTHs.MethodsData were collected from VTH medical records of dogs and cats examined by primary care, urgent care, emergency and critical care, internal medicine, and surgery services on a single day during August 13‐September 3, 2020. Data included signalment; clinical service; inpatient or outpatient status; clinical conditions; diagnostic tests; evidence of bacterial infection; intended reason for AU; name and route of antibiotics prescribed.ResultsOf 883 dogs and cats, 322 (36.5%) were prescribed at least 1 antibiotic. Among 285 antibiotics administered systemically intended for treatment of infection, 10.9% were prescribed without evidence of infection. The most common class of antibiotics presribed for systemic administration was potentiated penicillin for dogs (115/346, 33.3%) and cats (27/80, 33.8%). For dogs and cats, first‐generation cephalosporins (93/346, 26.9% and 11/80, 13.8%, respectively) and fluoroquinolones (51/346, 14.7% and 19/80, 23.8%, respectively) was second or third most‐prescribed. Common AU indications included skin, respiratory, and urinary conditions, and perioperative use.Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceCollaborative data collection provides a sustainable methodology to generate national AU prevalence estimates and bring attention to areas requiring additional research and detailed data collection. These efforts can also identify practice improvement opportunities in settings where future veterinarians are trained.

Exploring the Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance in Salmonella and commensal Escherichia coli from Non-Traditional Companion Animals: A Pilot Study

“…However, this antibiotic group belongs to HPCIAs [40] and should therefore be restricted for use in veterinary medicine. These results stand out in comparison to those observed in conventional companion animals (dogs and cats), as for them, the main group used and with higher AMR is the penicillins group [46,47]. However, in the case of NTCAs, penicillins ranked fourth in terms of the highest AMR in this study, where AMR should practically not be observed against this group of antibiotics, as they have been taken by only a small part of the study population and are contraindicated for oral administration in lagomorphs and rodents due to their high impact on the caecal bacterial population, leading to severe intestinal dysbiosis [48,49].…”