Assessment of Antibiotic Use Practices and Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles From Livestock Wastes and Fish Pond Effluents in Animal Farms in Cross River State, Nigeria

The extensive and misuse of antibiotics in animal production has become a public health threat. The evaluation of antibiotic use pattern among farmers and antibiogram from livestock wastes and effluent from animal farms was conducted in Cross River State. A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken with 379 animal production farmers and multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the selection of farms and respondents. Bacteriological analysis of animal wastes samples and antibiotics susceptibility testing was also conducted. Results revealed that 66.8% of farmers had a good knowledge on the use of antibiotics and its resistance. Majority (91.0%) of the farmers used antibiotics in their animal farms and for purposes of growth promotion, treatment of disease and prevention. Tetracycline, ampicillin, streptomycin, cotrimoxazole, gentamycin and vancomycin were the most frequently used groups of antibiotics. A total of 240 bacteria were isolated and the percentage occurrence of bacterial isolates were: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (14.2%), Escherichia coli (12.5%), Staphylococus aureus (10.8%), while Staphylococcus hominis (2.1%) had the least prevalence of occurrence. All the isolates showed multi-drugs resistance, Staphylococcus aureus showed the highest resistance to several antibiotics commonly used by farmers (80.8% to chloramphenicol, 80.8% to vancomycin and 73.1% of resistance to tetracycline). Statistical analysis of sociodemographic variables with farmers’ knowledge and antibiotics use showed that respondents’ level of education, years of farming experience, and farm type, were statistically significant (p<0.05). There is a need to improve farmers’ knowledge of antibiotics use and the possible consequences of their inappropriate use of antibiotics in farms.