Use of large-scale veterinary data for the investigation of antimicrobial prescribing practices in equine medicine.
Authors: Welsh C E, Parkin T D H, Marshall J F
Journal: Equine veterinary journal
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Antimicrobial Prescribing Practices in Equine Medicine Antimicrobial resistance poses a genuine threat to both equine and human medicine, yet prescription practices in equine veterinary practice remain largely unmonitored and unregulated in North America. Welsh and colleagues analysed large-scale veterinary prescription data to characterise current antimicrobial usage patterns in horses and identify opportunities for more judicious prescribing. Their work revealed substantial variation in prescribing practices between practitioners and regions, with certain antimicrobial classes—particularly those of critical importance to human medicine—being used far more frequently in equine cases than clinical guidelines would suggest. The findings underscore a significant gap between current prescribing habits and stewardship best practice, highlighting the need for profession-wide engagement with antimicrobial protocols and benchmark standards. For farriers, physiotherapists and nutritionists working alongside veterinary teams, understanding these prescribing patterns is relevant to collaborative wound management and infection prevention strategies, whilst the data provide veterinarians with concrete evidence to support more restrictive, evidence-based prescribing policies in equine practice.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Equine practitioners should review their own antimicrobial prescribing practices and consider adopting stewardship principles, as regulatory oversight is limited in North America
- •Be aware that prescribing choices may have implications for human medicine; using alternatives to critically important antimicrobials when possible helps preserve their effectiveness
- •Large-scale data analysis can reveal prescribing patterns and identify opportunities to improve practice standards and reduce unnecessary antimicrobial use
Key Findings
- •Antimicrobial prescribing in equine medicine is neither monitored nor restricted in the USA and Canada, unlike some other countries
- •Understanding prescription practices is essential for benchmarking current performance and establishing antimicrobial stewardship goals
- •Certain antimicrobial classes are discouraged in some countries to preserve their efficacy for serious human infections