23 Sept 2026
Upgraded platform designed to encourage straightforward participation with practice dashboards for uploading and comparing antibiotic usage data.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
An equine antibiotic reporting platform has undergone a “major transformation” to make it easier for practices to participate.
BEVA said its VMD-funded MonitorME antibiotic usage surveillance initiative, which was launched under immediate past-president Bruce Bladon last year, has been revamped by veterinary epidemiologist John Grewar, one of the collaborators of the Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance (EIDS) REIN In AMR platform.
MonitorME is now said to offer a similarly structured platform which gives each practice its own dashboard where they can directly upload their usage data as well as view and compare it against previous years and the national average.
BEVA said practices can continue to submit their data in the format they used previously if preferred, however.
The platform offers data for around 140,00 horses, and BEVA said in its latest report, for 16% of the total tonnage of sales of equine licensed potentiated sulphonamides – used as a proxy for the whole equine antibiotic market – there has been a 3% reduction of antibiotic usage, following on from a 4% reduction last year.
Meanwhile, on average UK horses received a daily dose of antibiotics on 1.178 days (Defined Daily Dose/horse/year).
Dr Bladon said: “This encouraging news has to be set against the substantial (28%) increase in the use of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HPCIAs).
“HPCIAs account for only 10% of total equine antibiotic use, but the direction of travel warrants attention.
“Ceftiofur and fluoroquinolone use grew at a similar rate, though because fluoroquinolone use is more than twice as high, it accounts for most of the increase in absolute terms.”
Dr Bladon added the reason for the increase is unclear and will need further investigation, noting there may be several contributing factors, with fluoroquinolones being convenient, relatively inexpensive and very effective, while ceftiofur is licensed for horses.
He concluded: “If you haven’t yet contributed to MonitorME, now is a great time to get involved.
“By submitting your practice data, you can benchmark your own antibiotic use, help identify opportunities for improvement and contribute to the evidence base supporting responsible antimicrobial stewardship across UK equine practice.”