A survey of the usage (frequency and pattern) of antibiotics at the University of Maiduguri Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Veterinary antibiotics are widely used to treat bacterial diseases in various species of animals. However, despite the importance of these chemotherapeutic agents, their indiscriminate or extensive use can pose dangers to the animals or humans that consume edible tissues from animals contaminated with antibiotic residues. Therefore, concerns regarding their appropriate and judicious use in animals are of public health significance. This is because of the tendencies of developing resistance to targeted microbes and the ability of the parent compound or its metabolites to persist as residues in the animal tissues. This study aimed to determine the frequency and pattern of antibiotic usage and ascertain the level of awareness of clinicians on the judicious use of antibiotics at the University of Maiduguri Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria. Data related to the administration of antibiotics in all species of animals presented for treatment from January 2009 to December 2018 were obtained from the hospital archives, with permission from the office of the hospital directorate. The diseases, hospital units, antibiotics used, and years were parameters that were recorded for each case. Furthermore, 47 questionnaires were administered to clinicians who render services to the hospital. A total of 63.9% of all cases brought to the hospital within the 10 years under study were infectious, and as such, were treated with antibiotics. The highest recorded use of antibiotics was observed in the poultry unit (38.4%), followed by the large animal unit (24.1%), with the lowest used recorded in the ambulatory unit (9.3%). Furthermore, regarding the antibiotics used, oxytetracycline had the highest occurrence (55%), followed by penicillin-streptomycin combination (12.2%), with the lowest being metronidazole (0.30%). The highest number of cases treated with antibiotics was recorded in 2018 (22.5%), and the lowest was recorded in 2014 (1.3%). Regarding the questionnaire administered to the clinicians, 78.7% of the respondents preferred oxytetracycline as their drug of choice, whereas only 2.1%, 4.3%, 2.1%, and 4.3% preferred amoxicillin, penicillin, streptomycin, and penicillin-streptomycin, respectively. Moreover, 65.9% of the respondents used a particular antibiotic because of its availability at the hospital, 8.5% because of cost, and 27.7% because of clinician preference. Furthermore, 74.5% of the clinicians offered palliative intervention while awa