Antibiotic use in equine practice (2023)
Overview
Antibiotic resistance is possibly the most serious public health issue facing the world.It is now documented that there is a spread of resistant bacteria from animals to humans, and there is pressure to reduce the amount of antibiotics used in veterinary practice. Recently there has been progress in identifying when, why and especially how many antibiotics we are using in equine practice, though there are still no widely agreed standard reporting measures. In equine practice, the choice of antibiotics is very limited, which actually increases pressure to use one of the highest priority critically important agents. This webinar will look at the indications for antibiotic usage in horses, with an emphasis on perioperative use, and consider the total consumption of antibiotics in equine practice. Finally, the webinar will look at the “old” antibiotic cefazolin, only recently available, yet widely recommended for perioperative use in humans. This agent is “only” highly important, so has much better antibiotic stewardship characteristics than ceftiofur or enrofloxacin.
Presenters
Dr. Bruce Bladon BVM&S Cert EP DESTS Dipl ECVS FRCVS
Bruce graduated from Edinburgh University in 1988. After one year in mixed and three years in equine practice, he joined O’Gorman Slater and Main (as it was then) in 1992. From 1995 to 1998he undertook a Residency in Equine Surgery at Bristol University and then re-joined Donnington Grove Veterinary Surgery (as it is now) as principal equine surgeon. Bruce’s interest is equine surgery, including arthroscopy, fracture repair, colic and airway surgery. He was an equine surgeon for the Rio Olympics and Hangzhou Asian Games and is President Elect of BEVA. He dabbles in imaging including MRI, scintigraphy and radiology.
