Danish cattle veterinarians' perspectives on antimicrobial use: Contextual and individual influencing factors
Associate professor Carsten Strøby Jensen has contributed to the article ‘Danish cattle veterinarians' perspectives on antimicrobial use: Contextual and individual influencing factors’, published in the US Journal of Dairy Science.
The article is written in collaboration with ph.d. Nanna Krogh Skjølstrup and assistant professor Dorte Bay, both from Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, and Senior researcher Mette Waarst, Department of Animal Sciences, Aarhus University.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is considered one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century. The global risk for AMR can be reduced by reducing antimicrobial use (AMU). Veterinarians are one of the key actors in relation to AMU in livestock, and understanding the dynamics of veterinary treatment and prescription is central to achieving AMU reduction.
Veterinary AMU decisions are influenced by a complex pattern of both individual and contextual factors. In this study, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 Danish cattle veterinarians to investigate their perspectives on AMU and current practices in a national context with low use and extensive legal control. They found that personal experiences and emotions, rather than scientific evidence, guided some veterinarians when making AMU choices. Furthermore, less-experienced veterinarians felt pressure to prescribe according to colleagues' and farmers' preferences for certain antimicrobials.
Additionally. the authors found that changes in Danish legislation seemed to have introduced hesitancy and a lack of motivation within the veterinary profession, and that AMR was perceived as an abstract threat not applicable to the veterinarians' daily professional decision making.
The authors concluded that the lack of field-generated research of local relevance nourished a culture in which AMU choices are built on personal experience rather than scientific evidence, which also diminished newly educated veterinarians' self-confidence in relation to their AMU choices.
Future research should focus on developing locally relevant research on optimal AMU choices and AMR, and the implications of extensive legal control of AMU in livestock farming should be further investigated to find a balance on the path to reducing AMU.
Read the article (open access): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2015.01.018