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Infectious disease

Antibiotic resistance in veterinary practice: a veterinary nurse's perspective

02 May 2015

Clinical

7 mins read

02 May 2015

Volume 6 · Issue 4

ISSN (print): 2044-0065

ISSN (online): 2052-2959

Figure 2. How using the wrong antibiotic can cause antibiotic resistance (Ackerman, 2015).

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is an important issue in all aspects of health care, not just in veterinary medicine. Responsible use of antibiotics is vital in order to preserve their use for the future. Any new antibiotics will be reserved for the human. There are many aspects (strategies and practises) that can be adapted into veterinary practice to help preserve these drugs, such as infection control procedures.

Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic, and is a specific type of drug resistance (Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA), 2014). Antibiotic resistance evolves naturally via natural selection through random mutation, but it could also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population through poor infection control, global trade and through the misuse of antimicrobials (APUA, 2014). Antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon. When an antibiotic is used, bacteria that can resist that antibiotic have a greater chance of survival than those that are ‘susceptible’. Susceptible bacteria are killed or inhibited by an antibiotic, resulting in a selective pressure for the survival of resistant strains of bacteria (Figure 1 and 2) (APUA, 2014).

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria spreads at three levels:

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