What is it?
Farmers and patients often pressure antimicrobial prescribers for antimicrobial drugs in order to reduce the risks of morbidity or mortality due to antimicrobial infections.
Prescribers are equipped with tools to determine if an antimicrobial drug prescription is appropriate, but patients and antimicrobial administrators (i.e., beef producers) can influence prescriber decisions, for instance by threatening to take their business elsewhere and find another veterinarian.
Non-compliance of prescribers recommendations also occurs, for instance not finishing a full course of antibiotics, or use of a drug for a purpose other than what it was prescribed for (off-label use).
Challenges
- Benefits of prescribing antimicrobial drugs include avoidance of clinical risks, high chances of creating positive clinical outcomes with minimal immediate risks to the patient, and maintaining prescriber-patient relationships. [1,2]
- Long term AMR risks aren’t immediately apparent to prescribers or patients.
How Does it Prevent AMR?
By educating users about the risks of AMR to both human and animal health, patients and livestock owners will be less inclined to pressure their doctors and veterinarians for prescriptions when antimicrobial use may not be the best appropriate action.
Further Reading
Research Gaps
Product/Service Gaps
Reference
[1] McCubbin KD, Anholt RM, de Jong E, Ida JA, Nóbrega DB, Kastelic JP, et al. Knowledge Gaps in the Understanding of Antimicrobial Resistance in Canada. Front Public Heal. 2021 Oct 20;9:1523. Available online at: Frontiers | Knowledge Gaps in the Understanding of Antimicrobial Resistance in Canada (frontiersin.org) (accessed September 4, 2022).
[2] Higgins, HM, S.E.Golding, SE, Mouncey, J, Nanjiani, I, Cook A.J.C. Understanding veterinarians’ prescribing decisions on antibiotic dry cow therapy. Journal of Dairy Science, Volume 100, Issue 4, April 2017, Pages 2909-2916. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2016-11923
