Abstract:
The use of antimicrobials in livestock production, for disease prevention and growth promotion, is of increasing concern owing to the threat of antimicrobial resistance in both humans and animals. The high usage of veterinary antimicrobials and the environmental contamination identified requires multisectoral interventions, as well as a review of government strategies, policies, and regulations on antimicrobial use. Using antimicrobial drugs in food animals yields healthier and increasingly fruitful animal production. Antimicrobial drug usage in animals and humans is likely to cause emergence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. Increased use of antimicrobials corresponds to increased emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria Their use in food animal production could lead to harmful concentrations of drugs. The study was aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude and practices of poultry farmers on antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance in Soroti western and northern division. Structured questionnaire was adopted from a previously published study with significant modifications to meet the objectives of this study and distributed to different sampled respondents in the study area.
A total of 138 households with poultry were involved in a questionnaire survey. The survey was conducted in Aloet parish in Arapai Sub County, Soroti district. Majority of the respondents were female (60.1%) and the rest (39.9%) were male. Of these, 50.7%, 37.7%, 9.4%, and 1.5 were in the age range of 41 – 60, 26 – 40, below 25 and above 60 years.
To determine farmers’ knowledge on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), it was identified hat 81.9% of the respondents use antimicrobials for treating birds, 53.0%, 25.4% and 17.4% use antimicrobials for disease preventive purposes, growth promoters and other purposes respectively. In this study, the attitude of poultry farmers on antimicrobial resistance was assessed based on the contribution of use of antimicrobials, accuracy and completion of treatment dose, restriction of antimicrobials use of expired drugs, and the addition of antimicrobials
