Vet World   Vol.11   March-2018  Article-3

Prevailing practices in the use of antibiotics by dairy farmers in Eastern Haryana region of India

Background and Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the antibiotic use in dairy animals and to trace its usage pattern among the small, medium, and large dairy farmers in Eastern Haryana region of India.

Materials and Methods: Karnal and Kurukshetra districts from Eastern region of Haryana state were purposively selected, and four villages from each district were selected randomly. From each village, 21 farmers were selected using stratified random sampling by categorizing into small, medium, and large farmers constituting a total of 168 farmers as respondents. An antibiotic usage index (AUI) was developed to assess usage of antibiotics by dairy farmers.

Results: Frequency of veterinary consultancy was high among large dairy farmers, and they mostly preferred veterinarians over para-veterinarians for treatment of dairy animals. Small farmers demanded low-cost antibiotics from veterinarians whereas large farmers rarely went for it. Antibiotics were used maximum for therapeutic purposes by all categories of farmers. Completion of treatment schedules and follow-up were strictly practiced by the majority of large farmers. AUI revealed that large farmers were more consistent on decision-making about prudent use of antibiotics. Routine use of antibiotics after parturition to prevent disease and sale of milk without adhering to withdrawal period was responsible for aggravating the antibiotic resistance. The extent of antibiotic use by small farmers depended on the severity of disease. The large farmers opted for the prophylactic use of antibiotics at the herd level.

Conclusion: Antibiotic usage practices were judicious among large dairy farmers, moderately prudent by medium dairy farmers and faulty by small farmers. The frequency of veterinary consultancy promoted better veterinary-client relationship among large farmers. Keywords: antibiotic usage, treatment schedules, veterinary consultancy, withdrawal period.

Keywords: antibiotic usage, treatment schedules, veterinary consultancy, withdrawal period.

How to cite this article: Kumar V, Gupta J (2018) Prevailing practices in the use of antibiotics by dairy farmers in Eastern Haryana region of India, Veterinary World, 11(3): 274-280.

Received: 05-11-2017  Accepted: 31-01-2018     Published online: 04-03-2018

Corresponding author: Jancy Gupta   E-mail: jancygupta@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.274-280

Copyright: Kumar and Gupta, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.