The Use of Colistin in Food-Producing Animals in Estonia—Vaccination as an Effective Alternative to Consumption of Critically Important Antimicrobials in Pigs

Abstract

Reducing the use of critically important antimicrobials in veterinary medicine is increasingly important to avoid the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The aim of this study was to analyse ten-year trends of colistin consumption in Estonia and to ascertain the possible association between Escherichia (E.) coli vaccination and colistin consumption in pig production. Colistin sales data (2010–2019) were collected from the wholesalers, allowing differentiation of target species. In Estonia, the amount of sold colistin increased constantly and almost doubled from 2010 to 2013, and decreased from 2013 to 2019 by 92.5% in total. On average across a ten-year study period, 89.7% of colistin was used in pig production. The number of sold doses of E. coli vaccines for pigs was very low before 2014 (<2000) and increased drastically to 2019 (362,000). According to linear time-series model with autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) the consumption of colistin in pigs decreased on average by 0.23 mg/PCU for every 10,000 E. coli vaccine doses (95% CI −0.39, −0.06; p = 0.006) over ten years. This study revealed that in pig production, vaccination against E. coli strains contributes to the expected downward trend in colistin consumption.

Real-World Data on Antibiotic Group Treatment in European Livestock: Drivers, Conditions, and Alternatives

“…As seen in our survey, neonatal colibacillosis in pigs was already identified as one of the major therapeutic gaps in France [ 50 ]. Vaccination of piglets against E. coli strains was shown as an effective alternative to control post-weaning diarrhea at farm level [ 51 , 52 ]. Though both an oral live vaccine and an intramuscular toxoid vaccine are available, their spectrum is limited to certain E. coli strains ( E. coli F4/F18 and STx2e producing E. coli , resp.).…”

“…Though both an oral live vaccine and an intramuscular toxoid vaccine are available, their spectrum is limited to certain E. coli strains ( E. coli F4/F18 and STx2e producing E. coli , resp.). However, a significant association between increased vaccination of piglets against E. coli and reduction of colistin use was seen in Estonia [ 52 ]. Novel technologies such as subunit vaccines could be used as a single vaccine across the farrowing, suckling, and weaning program to protect against pathogenic E. coli [ 53 ].…”

Investigation of Escherichia coli isolates from pigs and humans for colistin resistance in Lao PDR- a cross-sectional study

“…Colistin is used in food-producing animals, including pigs, as a treatment and as a growth promoter [ 5 ]. In 2015, the first plasmid-borne mobile colistin resistance gene ( mcr-1 ) was detected in Escherichia coli (E. coli) from 78/523 (14.91%) samples of raw pork, 166/804 (20.64%) pigs, and in 16/1322 (1.21%) patients with infection in China [ 6 ].…”

Plasmid-mediated colistin resistance from fresh meat and slaughtered animals in the Czech Republic: nation-wide surveillance 2020–2021

“…Although the use of colistin in humans has been very limited in the past, nowadays it has been recovered for the treatment of serious systemic infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria ( 2 ). Whereas colistin usage was seriously limited in human medicine, it was broadly administered in veterinary medicine, especially in poultry and pigs, for the prevention and therapy of commonly occurring gastrointestinal infections caused by bacteria from Enterobacterales ( 3 , 4 ).…”

“…Despite its medicinal importance, colistin is still added to animal feed as a growth promoter for livestock in some countries, contributing significantly to the global spread of colistin resistance ( 4 ). European Union (EU) countries have restricted the prophylactic use of colistin-containing veterinary products, including a ban on all antimicrobials as growth promoters in animal feed, as early as 2006 ( 4 ). In the Czech Republic, colistin consumption in veterinary medicine decreased by 25.0% between 2010 and 2018 to 0.7 milligrams/population correction unit (mg/PCU).…”