Vets urged to advocate antibiotic use reduction

Vets have been called on to use their “power of advocacy” to encourage pet owners’ support for further reducing antibiotic usage in practice.

The plea came as Antibiotic Amnesty organisers revealed major advances in both the number of products returned and practices participating in last year’s programme.

An entire stream on the second day of the BSAVA Congress was dedicated to issues of drug stewardship in the sector’s first major event following publication of the Competition and Markets Authority review’s report.

But despite fears about its impact, the University of Glasgow’s Ian Ramsey argued clinicians still have a powerful platform from which they can influence the vast majority of their clients.

Prof Ramsey said: “We worry about the 5% who won’t, but 95% of pet owners will do what we ask them because we are vets. Don’t underestimate that power of advocacy.”

Participation increase

Earlier in the Manchester event, amnesty leaders revealed that a total of 302 practices had taken part in the 2023 campaign, an increase of 70% on the previous year.

Around 2,800 medical products, most of them tablets, were also returned during the campaign, with the estimated 2,458 tablets surrendered representing a three-fold increase on the 2022 total.

Fergus Allerton, one of the project’s veterinary leaders, acknowledged that more still needs to be done to communicate the need for clients to return unused medicines to their practices outside the amnesty period in November.

But, although other officials said they did not envisage the campaign’s primary message changing, he suggested a focus on its wider public benefits may be required.

Important

He said: “I think what we need to do is get across the fact that this is an important initiative for everybody’s health and for the health of their pets, as well.

“What we’re seeking to do is to make sure these drugs are not used inappropriately, as well as making sure we dispose of them properly.”

Prof Ramsey praised the development of guideline projects such as Sodapop and Protect Me as initiatives that had driven progress on the subject rather than academic research.

He also urged delegates to ensure they have the backing of senior vets, reflecting what he described as a “terribly hierarchical profession” as they drive forward changes in their own practice.

He added: “The manufacturers aren’t going to change your practice. You’re going to change your practice.”

Room for improvement

Dr Allerton acknowledged there was still room for improvement in some areas and a need to update professional guidance, but went on to warn: “There is a danger they will end up in a guidelines graveyard. They need to resonate.”

The importance of ensuring appropriate drug use and disposal was also highlighted in a separate congress presentation by Fraser Broadfoot, who heads the VMD’s antibiotic use and stewardship unit.

He told delegates that antimicrobial resistance is responsible for more human deaths globally than either HIV/AIDS, breast cancer or malaria, and the agency was keen to fill recognised data gaps relating to small animal usage.

Although the EU is set to make data collection for antibiotic usage in all species a legal requirement from 2030, Dr Broadfoot indicated the UK would not go down a similar route unless it was felt that insufficient progress was being made.

But he said there was international interest in how the UK was achieving strong compliance on a voluntary basis, adding: “I do think we are having an influence.”