Vet World   Vol.16   September-2023  Article-7

Research Article

Veterinary World, 16(9): 1821-1828

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.1821-1828

Effect of knowledge of informal poultry drug prescribers on their attitude and practice toward antimicrobial use, residues, and resistance in Bangladesh

Aminatu Abubakar Sani1,2, Kazi Rafiq1, Fatema Akter1, Purba Islam1, Sabbya Sachi1, Nasrin Sultana3, Sajedul Hayat1, Usman Bashir Usman4, Md. Shafiqul Islam1, Md. Zahorul Islam1, and Muhammad Tofazzal Hossain5
1. Department of Pharmacology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
2. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
3. Department of Anatomy and Histology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
4. Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria.
5. Department of Microbiology and Hygiene, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

Background and Aim: Informal prescribers (IPs) significantly contribute to the development of antimicrobial resistance and in disseminating pathogens from poultry to humans and other animals through the food chain, posing a serious global health threat. Therefore, this study aimed to assess whether the knowledge of IPs has an impact on their attitude and practice toward antimicrobial use, antibiotic residues, and antimicrobial resistance.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we conducted a pre-tested and questionnaire-based survey to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of IPs in selected parts of the Mymensingh division, Bangladesh. Then, we used the linear regression model test with R-squared (R2) to measure the association between the study variables.

Results: Our investigation revealed that 70% of the IPs knew about antibiotics and 75% had good knowledge about antibiotic resistance, whereas only 50% were aware of withdrawal periods. Informal prescribers also displayed good attitudes toward the use and sale of antibiotics with withdrawal periods and completion of medication (50%). Analysis of their practice on the sale and prescription of antibiotics showed that 70% and 30% of IPs use antibiotics against bacterial infections and other conditions, respectively. Most of them do not consult a veterinarian before selling or prescribing antibiotics, although 80% claim to do so. This is because 75% of IPs gave other options regarding their consultations. However, 95% of IPs uses antibiotics only for therapeutic purposes. Furthermore, only 10% sell antibiotics based on a veterinarian’s recommendation. Approximately 45% of IPs use single antibiotics at a time, while the rest use multiple antibiotics, individually or combined. Approximately 15% use antibiotics monthly, while 85% use them whenever the need arises. The knowledge and attitude of IPs are significantly affected by their age (p ≤ 0.025). The district of domicile also impacted their knowledge. Surprisingly, IPs from Jamalpur had significantly better knowledge compared to those from Mymensingh and Sherpur (p ≤ 0.01). The attitude of IPs from Jamalpur and Netrokona also differed significantly (p ≤ 0.001) from that of Mymensingh and Sherpur. The knowledge of IPs influenced their attitude up to 80.5% (r2 = 0.628) and their practice up to 75.4% (r2 = 0.545).

Conclusion: The knowledge of IPs greatly influenced their attitude and practice, while sociodemographics also influenced their knowledge and attitude toward antimicrobial use, antibiotic residues, and antimicrobial resistance. Keywords: antimicrobial residue, antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial use, informal poultry drug prescriber, knowledge, attitude, and practices, survey.

Keywords: antimicrobial residue, antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial use, informal poultry drug prescriber, knowledge, attitude, and practices, survey.

How to cite this article: Sani AA, Rafiq K, Akter F, Islam P, Sachi S, Sultana N, Hayat S, Usman UB, Islam MS, Islam MZ, and Hossain MT (2023) Effect of knowledge of informal poultry drug prescribers on their attitude and practice toward antimicrobial use, residues, and resistance in Bangladesh, Veterinary World, 16(9): 1821-1828.

Received: 11-05-2023  Accepted: 04-08-2023     Published online: 14-09-2023

Corresponding author: Kazi Rafiq   E-mail: kazirafiq@bau.edu.bd

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.1821-1828

Copyright: Sani, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.