Validation, visibility, vagueness and variation: A qualitative assessment of existing veterinary guidelines for antimicrobial use in cattle and sheep in the UK.

Autor: Best CM; University of Bristol Veterinary School, Langford, Bristol, United Kingdom., Bard AM; University of Bristol Veterinary School, Langford, Bristol, United Kingdom.; Department of Life Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, United Kingdom., Rees GM; Department of Life Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, United Kingdom., Reyher KK; University of Bristol Veterinary School, Langford, Bristol, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2023 Nov 30; Vol. 18 (11), pp. e0294733. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 30 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294733
Abstrakt: Antimicrobials are essential in veterinary medicine to treat and control bacterial disease in animals. Their prudent use in food-producing animals has been encouraged to reduce the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance. National and international guidelines for responsible antimicrobial use have been developed as tools to guide and rationalise antimicrobial prescribing decisions by veterinarians and usage decisions by farmers. Yet, there is little understanding of whether these existing guidelines are fit for purpose. Accordingly, this study rigorously assessed 128 veterinary guidelines for antimicrobial use in ruminants in the UK, following established qualitative methodologies. Findings revealed four pertinent themes: validation of the veterinarian as the prescriber, visibility of responsible use realities, vagueness in interpretation and variation in directing behaviour. These themes encompassed the roles and responsibilities of the veterinarian and the realities of prescribing scenarios, alongside concerns relating to the specificity within and variation between guidelines. Resultant recommendations to inform and support the future development of guidelines include establishing species-specific and disease-specific guidelines, expanding guidelines to include disease prevention measures, including definitions to resolve vagueness and promoting congruence in interpretation, encouraging the development of practice-level guidelines to endorse collaboration and ownership, and fostering active working between stakeholders to align priorities and messaging.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 Best et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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