Antibiotic usage in 14 equine practices over a 10-year period (2012-2021).
Authors: Tallon Rose E, Whitt Brian, Bladon Bruce M
Journal: Equine veterinary journal
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Antibiotic Usage Monitoring in UK Equine Practice (2012-2021) Fourteen UK equine practices contributed a decade of antibiotic dispensing data—covering up to 107,977 horses annually—enabling Rose, Whitt and Bladon to establish standardised metrics for measuring antimicrobial usage across the sector. Using Eclipse® practice management software, the researchers calculated antibiotic consumption in three complementary ways: total milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight (median 54.25 mg/kg annually), defined daily doses per animal per year (1.52 DDDvet), and defined daily doses per 1000 animals (4.17 DDD/1000), with critically important antimicrobials accounting for substantially lower usage (0.67 mg/kg, 0.12 DDDvet, and 0.33 DDD/1000 respectively). The variability across practices—particularly the wide range in highest-priority antimicrobial use (0.56–1.71 mg/kg)—suggests inconsistency in prescribing patterns and considerable scope for stewardship improvement. For practitioners involved in equine health, these standardised measurement approaches offer practical tools for benchmarking your own antibiotic usage against sector norms, whilst the observation that defined daily dosage calculations better account for potentiated sulphonamides (the workhorse of equine therapy) may prove more clinically meaningful than simple weight-based metrics when auditing your prescribing decisions.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Your practice management software can be used to generate standardized antibiotic usage reports that allow meaningful comparison with other practices and tracking of resistance management progress
- •Using defined daily dose calculations rather than simple mg/kg measurements may better reflect actual antibiotic exposure in equine practice, particularly given the heavy reliance on potentiated sulphonamides
- •Accurate record-keeping of antibiotic preparations in your software is essential for reliable monitoring; this supports both antimicrobial stewardship audits and compliance with resistance prevention strategies
Key Findings
- •Median annual antibiotic usage across 14 UK equine practices was 54.25 mg/kg (range 45.34-60.27 mg/kg) over the 10-year period 2012-2021
- •Critically important antimicrobial usage (HPCIA) was relatively low at a median of 0.67 mg/kg (range 0.56-1.71 mg/kg)
- •Defined daily dose metrics (DDDvet and DDD/1000 animals) were successfully calculated to standardize antibiotic usage reporting across practices despite varying dosing regimens
- •Software-based monitoring using practice management systems provides a reliable method for tracking antibiotic usage trends and supporting antimicrobial stewardship in equine practice