A Retrospective, Observational Study on Antimicrobial Drug Use in Beef Fattening Operations in Northwestern Italy and Evaluation of Risk Factors Associated with Increased Antimicrobial Usage

Abstract

The abuse or misuse of antimicrobials in animal production is thought to be a potential factor in the development of antimicrobial resistance in veterinary and human medicine. With this study, we wanted to quantify antimicrobial usage in beef fattening operations in northwestern Italy and to identify factors potentially influencing antimicrobial usage. The sample was composed of 26 beef fattening operations that import heifers and bulls from France. Data were extracted from the 2014 and 2015 treatment registers kept by the farmers. The mean (±SD) number of animal daily doses per animal (nADDa) per year for each farm was 3 (±2.1) during the study period (2014–2015). Group antimicrobial treatments (57.5% of all treatments) were often administered orally (70.5%) and consisted overwhelmingly of doxycycline (97%). Individual treatments (42.5% of all treatments) were administered parenterally (98.1%) and the most often used active substances were florfenicol (19.9%), marbofloxacin (19.5%), and tylosin (12.4%). There was a negative correlation between the nADDa for total and group treatments and average batch weight at arrival and between the amount of straw added per animal per day and the nADDa (p ≤ 0.05). Our data show that antimicrobials critical for human medicine were often used in beef fattening operations in northwestern Italy before the European guidelines for the prudent use of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine were issued. Additionally, the use of antimicrobials as a preventive group treatment was still widespread, mostly in lighter weight animals.