Assessing farm biosecurity and farmers' knowledge and practices concerning antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in poultry and pig farms in Southern Togo

Vet World Vol.15 July-2022 Article-17

Research Article

Veterinary World, 15(7): 1727-1737

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.1727-1737

Andre Pouwedeou Bedekelabou¹, Essodina Talaki^2,3, Koffi Francois-Xavier Dzogbema³, Malibida Dolou^2,3, Madi Savadogo^4,5, Malik Orou Seko¹, and Rianatou Bada Alambedji¹

1. Department of Public Health and Environment, Inter-States School of Veterinary Sciences and Medicine of Dakar (EISMV), P.O. Box 5077, Dakar, Senegal.
2. Higher School of Agronomy (ESA) of the University of Lomé, Togo.
3. Regional Center of Excellence on Avian Sciences (CERSA) of the University of Lomé, Togo.
4. Department of Biomedical and Public Health, Research Institute for Health Sciences (IRSS/CNRST), P.O. Box 7047, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
5. Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals and Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liege, Quartier Vallée 2 avenue de Cureghem, 6, 4000 Liege, Belgium.

Background and Aim: Several factors contribute to the unusual incidence of antibiotic resistance, which is now a primary public health concern. However, failure in managing preventive and therapeutic antibiotic use on farms is one of the most crucial factors. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the biosecurity of farms, farmers' competence, and practices related to antibiotics and their resistance in poultry and pig rearing in Togo.

Materials and Methods: Through a cross-sectional survey, 121 commercial poultry farmers and 97 commercial pig farmers were questioned to evaluate the biosecurity of farms and farmers' competence and practices related to antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. Descriptive analyses, including the evaluation of proportions, were carried out. In addition, results from qualitative factors were evaluated in a defined grid and totaled up to assess cleanliness measures, awareness, and behavior regarding antibiotics and their resistance.

Results: The results demonstrated that most farmers working on poultry farms had a university education, while most working on pig farms had secondary education. Most poultry (69%) and pig (44%) farms were of small sizes (<1000 animals in poultry and <10 animals in pig farming). The footbaths were used in just 51% of poultry farms and 4% of pig farms, respectively, with 37% and 82% of poultry and pig farms having inadequate levels of hygiene. In poultry farms, respiratory issues and periodic decline in egg-laying were the main problems. Simultaneously, skin disorders (scabies) and plagues (African swine fever) were the primary health constraints in pig farming. Tetracycline is the most commonly used antibiotic by farmers. However, in poultry and pig farms, 21% and 67% of farmers were unaware of antibiotics. In addition, 39% and 57% were unaware of antibiotic resistance. Poultry and pig farmers' competence were substantially linked to their education level. Poultry farmers demonstrated better practices, including procuring antibiotics based on veterinary prescriptions (63%) and they knew where antibiotics should be bought (90%). Nevertheless, 43% of farmers asserted unpleasant activities – no application for laboratory testing (93%) and use of antibiotics for prevention (82%). In pig farming, most farmers (69%) reported inadequate incidents of the use of antibiotics.

Conclusion: This study identified a crucial non-compliance with biosecurity measures and good practices toward antibiotic use on many farms. Therefore, training of farmers is mandatory for safe livestock products. Keywords: antibiotic resistance, antibiotics, biosecurity, knowledge, pig, poultry, practice.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, antibiotics, biosecurity, knowledge, pig, poultry, practice.

How to cite this article: Bedekelabou AP, Talaki E, Dzogbema KF, Dolou M, Savadogo M, Orou Seko M, Bada Alambedji R (2022) Assessing farm biosecurity and farmers' knowledge and practices concerning antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in poultry and pig farms in Southern Togo, Veterinary World, 15(7): 1727–1737.

Received: 15-01-2022 Accepted: 02-06-2022 Published online: 21-07-2022

Corresponding author: Andre Pouwedeou Bedekelabou E-mail: pouwedeouandre@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.1727-1737

Copyright: Bedekelabou, 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.