Consumption of antimicrobials in Finnish swine herds 2014

This abstract describes usage of antimicrobials in Finnish swine herds in 2014.

In 2014 Finnish swine health program (Sikava) collected information from its system from 1282 pig herds. This data consists of 250 519 recordings from 1204 farms.

The most commonly administered antimicrobial was procaine benzylpenicillin. It´s active ingredient, benzylpenicillin, was used 1199 kg. The most common diagnoses for using penicillin were arthritis and other leg problems in sows and piglets. In finishers the most common diagnosis was tail biting. Chlortetracycline reached 1138 kg. It was used only in respiratory and intestinal infections, of which the former was the most common indication.

Sulfonamides combined with trimethoprim were used altogether 290 kg. The most common diagnosis was enteritis in weaners and metritis, PDS (MMA) or urinary infection in sows. The rest of the used antimicrobials in the order of usage were amoxicillin (143 kg), oxytetracyclin (88 kg), tylvalosin (80 kg), tiamulin (26 kg), tylosin (20 kg), ampicillin (20 kg), lincomycin (15 kg), enrofloxacin (2 kg), marbofloxacin (0,4 kg) and danofloxacin (0,4 kg). Kefalosporines were not used at all.

Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira has given national recommendations for the use of antimicrobials against the most common infectious diseases in animals in 2009. For arthritis and other leg problems Evira recommends to use penicillin G as the first choice. This recommendation is well adapted in Finnish pig farms. Evira recommends to treat tail biting with penicillin G and this is also the common practice. For respiratory and intestinal disorders Evira recommends to select the antimicrobial according to the bacteriological finding. In respiratory disorders penicillin G targeting actinobacillosis and pasteurella infections is the recommendation as the first choice. The use of penicillin in respiratory infections is not adapted into practice most likely because of its impractical administration parenterally to large groups. For intestinal disorders chlortetracycline is not the first drug choice and still it was widely used for enteritis. Metritis, urinary infections and PDS (MMA) are recommended to be treated with sulfonamides or aminopenicillins and they are implemented very well.

This data covers most of the Finnish pig production and is therefore well applicable in most of the herds. In Finland, the usage of antimicrobials is concentrated on using narrow spectrum antimicrobials in most cases. The national recommendations for most of the animal diseases are well followed. Respiratory and intestinal infections are commonly treated with tetracyclines, which is not according to recommendations.

Disclosure of Interest: None Declared.