Patterns of antibiotic use in global pig production: A systematic review

Highlights

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  Many classes of antibiotic used for humans are also used in food animals, including the highest priority of the critically important antimicrobials for human medicine in the World Health Organisation's list.

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  Penicillins and Tetracyclines classes were the most commonly used antibiotics in many countries.

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  Improve understanding of the use of antibiotics and factors influencing antibiotic use will help promoting prudent use of antimicrobials in livestock.

Abstract

This review assesses the evidence for patterns of antibiotic use in pig on the basis of papers published in peer-reviewed journals in English between 2000 and 2017. Thirty-six articles were identified and reviewed, of which more than 85% of studies were conducted in Europe and North America. Penicillins and Tetracyclines groups were the most commonly used antibiotics in many countries. Oral medication in suckling and post-weaning periods were the most common applications of antibiotic administration in pig production. Antibiotic use is driven by age-specific diseases and the common pathogens causing these conditions where epidemiological profiles varied greatly across countries. In addition, the type and size of farm were associated with antibiotic use with finisher and larger farms using more antibiotics than farrow-to-finish and smaller farms. There is variation in the use of the highest priority critically important antimicrobials in humans across studies. However, this review indicates that they are still commonly used in pig production, for treatment and prevention of infection. This evidence calls for global efforts on the prudent use of antibiotics in response to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the agricultural sector.