References
Tackling antibiotic resistance in veterinary practice: a team approach
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a major problem in veterinary and human medicine and is still on the increase. It's essential that veterinary practitioners understand the problem and its causes in order to counter it most effectively. Any such response will be most effectual if all members of the veterinary, and medical, team share responsibility and work constructively within their designated roles to combat areas where there is the potential for antibiotic resistance to develop. In particular, veterinary nurses and technicians need to focus on educating their clients, updating and implementing clinic protocols, and adhering to high standards of clinic hygiene. Time is also of the essence in tackling antibiotic resistance: the longer the delay in taking action to prevent it, the harder it will be to combat in the long run, with major health risks becoming associated with relatively minor illnesses or procedures and the inability to treat serious infections with current antibiotics.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are something that the scientific community has been aware of and attempting to raise concern about for some time, indeed meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was first reported to have been isolated from animals in 1972 (DEFRA, 2010). And, like other inconvenient truths, it has taken some time for the wider community to appreciate the full extent of the problem. Now, however, antibiotic resistant bacteria are a well recognised problem and reports on the issue occur regularly, even in the general media.
Not so long ago hygiene was at the core of human and veterinary medicine. Admittedly this was because before the advent of modern drugs, there were often very few options available to medical professionals for treating bacterial infections so they relied on a fundamental strategy of cleanliness and sanitation. Now, with advances in medicine there is far less reliance on such basic tenets, to the point where they may have been regarded as peripheral rather than central to health and veterinary care. This is flawed thinking, and is part of what has led to the overdependence on antibiotics and the current antibiotic crisis. As Nuttall identifies ‘high standards of clinical practice and hygiene are vital to prevent the spread of these organisms [bacteria]’ (Nuttall, 2015). Used together, good clinical protocols, proper hygiene and appropriate antibiotics can readily combat bacteria. Used singly, none is as effective: a multi pronged approach must be used to treat infections and, crucially, to tackle antibiotic resistance.
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