This work presents an assessment of the use of antimicrobials in the Ontario swine industry and the frequency of treatment failure when antimicrobials were used for treating disease. Results here support other reports of common antimicrobial use within the swine industry [1, 8]. Similarly, the most commonly used antimicrobials in the OSVS dataset were consistent with the three highest-use injectable antimicrobials reported by CIPARS [9]. Although the administration route for antimicrobials is available within the CIPARS data, the reasons for use are not available. However, sentinel practitioner systems such as the OSVS may provide insight on the proportion of antimicrobial use for disease treatment as compared to growth promotion or prophylaxis, as OSVS participants were requested to only record treatments (not routine use). Use of multiple antimicrobials was not uncommon within the reports assessed here; more than 20% of records indicated that ≥ 2 antimicrobials were used for treatment. Furthermore, these data displayed that antimicrobials were used in cases where the expected diagnosis was viral (e.g., porcine circovirus infection and influenza) or non-infectious (e.g., injury), either as a precautionary measure if a suspected viral infection is actually bacterial, or to prevent/treat secondary bacterial infections.
In reports indicating antimicrobial use, treatment failure was surprisingly high (70%). To assess predictors for treatment failure within these records, a multi-level logistic regression model was built with the assumption that the reported treatment failure reflected failure of the antimicrobial mentioned in the treatment field. Results of this model indicated that the odds of treatment failure was associated with the body system affected, the number of antimicrobials used in treatment and use of the antimicrobial neomycin. The odds of treatment failure was significantly lower when the GI system was affected as compared to respiratory, multisystemic, musculoskeletal or other body system conditions, and the odds of treatment failure with multisystemic conditions was significantly higher than in reports with no body system recorded.
Significant differences in treatment failure among body systems affected likely reflected the etiology of common swine conditions. Many respiratory and multi-systemic conditions in swine have a viral etiology (e.g., porcine circovirus infection, influenza, PRRS) and antimicrobial treatment is not expected to resolve the primary viral infection. This is not to say that antimicrobial treatment is always inappropriate however, as secondary bacterial infections or co-infections may also occur and antimicrobial treatment may prevent the exacerbation of clinical signs [10, 11]. Accordingly, prudent use guidelines for antimicrobial use in swine encourage veterinarians to determine the causative agent of disease while recognizing the potential for secondary bacterial infections [12].
The differences in the probability of treatment failure among the body systems may also reflect the route of administration of antimicrobials in swine production. Due to large herd or group sizes, treatment of individual animals by injection can be difficult and impractical. Therefore, mass medication of herds through water or feed is a common practice [9]. Enteric bacterial infections are expected to be effectively treated with this method, given that no metabolism or uptake of the drug into the blood stream/tissue is required. As such, failure of orally administered treatment is expected to occur more often than when other body systems are affected. Furthermore, ill animals are likely to go off-feed, which can result in under-dosing of infections requiring drug metabolism or blood stream uptake. The observed sparing effect of neomycin use may also be explained by body system and route of administration; neomycin is supplied through feed or water in order to treat bacterial enteritis caused by Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. [13].
The odds of treatment failure increased significantly with the use of multiple antimicrobials. Although practitioners were requested to record data only pertaining to the current visit, the data suggested that records listing multiple antimicrobials for treatment may have reflected either concurrent use of multiple products, or successive use following failure of the primary treatment. However, these results suggest that it may be prudent to explore non-bacterial etiologies and preventative approaches to swine health when the use of two or more antimicrobials is being considered.
Given that the variance in reported treatment failure was greater at the report level than the farm or practitioner level, it may be assumed that the disease in question has greater influence on the probability of treatment failure than farm- or practitioner-level factors. Therefore, the potential impact of prescription-only standards for accessing antimicrobials on-farm is great, as suggested by the Veterinary Drugs Directorate “Uses of antimicrobials in food animals in Canada” report [14]. These standards would require producers to obtain a prescription for all antimicrobial use, which is not a current practice in Ontario. Upon the adoption of this recommendation, a shift in the influence may occur towards practitioners. The impact of this shift upon the frequency of treatment failure presents an interesting topic for follow-up studies.
In instances of non-GI conditions or failure of first-line antimicrobial treatment, a review of the vaccination, biosecurity, artificial insemination, and air quality strategies used on-farm may provide a more effective means of improving and maintaining herd health. Vaccines are available and a topic of ongoing research for many common pathogens of swine, including S. suis[15, 16], PRRS [17, 18], porcine circovirus [19, 20], and E. coli[21, 22]. Given that the majority of antimicrobial use reported in the OSVS reports reflected the treatment of conditions caused by these pathogens, successful vaccination strategies are expected to lower the probability of antimicrobial use and treatment failure alike. Similarly, two manageable biosecurity measures, the presence of a shower on-site and limited access to main entrances by rendering trucks, have been shown to be associated with reduced probability of positive PRRS virus status on-farm [23]. Other management practices such as the use of semen from specific-pathogen free boars for artificial insemination [24], weaning at 28 days of age or later [25] improving ventilation [26, 27], reducing group sizes to decrease density [28] and switching to all-in-all-out flow systems [28] have been shown to be associated with reduced probability of positive viral status. However, the practicality of some of these changes is questioned, as many may require large economic inputs by producers (e.g., changes requiring renovations to facilities). Therefore, it may be prudent for practitioners, producers, and policy makers to reassess the current guidelines around vaccinations, and the use and acquisition of antimicrobials in swine production. In order to reduce the volume of antimicrobial product being used to treat non-bacterial infections, priority should be given to research that focuses on assessing the health and economic impacts of vaccination, prescription-only standards for antimicrobial use, or increasing the frequency of contact between producers and practitioners.
Due to the nature of the data collection, it should be noted that there are some potential biases present in this dataset. There is some potential for over-estimation of the use of antimicrobials for treatment of disease, given that the reporting veterinarian(s) may have recorded antimicrobials used for growth promotion and/or prophylaxis in the treatment field. Furthermore, some diagnostic misclassification may have occurred between diseases that present similarly, as laboratory confirmation was not linked to these records.
This work suggests that failure of antimicrobial treatment is more likely to occur in non-GI conditions, as compared to GI conditions. Furthermore, the use of multiple antimicrobial products is also associated with an increased probability of antimicrobial treatment failure. Improved immunity via vaccination, management and biosecurity strategies may be viewed as a form of antimicrobial stewardship to the industry by reducing required antimicrobial inputs and consequently, reduced selection pressure for AMR. Furthermore, further research is suggested surrounding the economic and health impacts of changes to guidelines surrounding vaccination, antimicrobial acquisition and use, as well as increasing the frequency of contact between producers and practitioners.