The intention is to encourage the continued reduction of the use of critically important antibiotics.
BEVA is running a survey to find out more about antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance in practice and has added further practical elements to its Protect Me Toolkit online resources. Meanwhile the EVJ will publish a special online collection of previously published articles “Antimicrobials in an age of resistance” on 18 November 2019.
The survey, which was launched at BEVA Congress in September and has had 262 veterinary responses to date, aims to assess any changes in prescribing of antimicrobials in equine practice since the last survey in 2009. The results will also provide an insight on the current frequency and types of antimicrobial resistant infections seen by clinicians and what infection control and audit practices are in place.
BEVA’s Protect Me toolkit is a free resource for BEVA members, to help facilitate compliance and educate horse owners about the importance of antimicrobial awareness. Today, BEVA will be launching three new short webinarson rational antimicrobial therapy and the need for antimicrobial stewardship. In addition a “No antibiotic prescription form” has been added to the toolkit to help owners understand clearly when an antibiotic is not required.
The EVJ’s online collection “Antimicrobials in an age of resistance” is a special collection of nine papers, which contribute to knowledge of appropriate antimicrobial use in equine patients, edited by Jennifer Davis and Melissa Merca.
“While antimicrobials remain essential for the health and welfare of horses suffering from bacterial infection it’s imperative for vets to protect their usage to maintain their effectiveness for the future,” said BEVA President Tim Mair.
“The equine veterinary sector is committed to responsible stewardship; sales surveillance data shows that sales of horse only antibiotics has fallen by 4.3 tonnes (64 percent) since 2017 and 13.6 tonnes (85 percent) since 2014. We hope the results of the BEVA survey will provide further optimistic data.”
The EVJ special collection can be downloaded here
