Battle of the bugs explored at CPD day
VMD inspector John Hall with delegates at the CCOAS event.
TOPICS ranging from antimicrobial and anthelmintic resistance to the latest microchip technology for disease testing topped the bill at the first CPD day hosted by Central College of Animal Studies.
The Suffolk-based event, entitled Effective Use of Veterinary Medicines, had broad appeal to SQPs, VNs and vets alike, by covering topics in depth and splitting sessions between morning and afternoon slots to further develop each theme.
Speaker Duncan Hannant, professor of applied immunology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nottingham, kicked off the event with a thought-provoking introduction 'Viruses, bugs and prions: battles on unequal terms'.
Professor Hannant explained how diseases are continually emerging, both in humans and animals, and how the role of wildlife was playing a bigger and bigger part. He said 75 per cent of new and emerging diseases arose from wildlife – 60 per cent of which were zoonotic.
"It would be very surprising if, over the next decade, there were not many more emerging/re-emerging diseases seen in humans, animals and plants," Professor Hannant told delegates.
By way of dealing with these diseases, he introduced the One Health initiative, a worldwide strategy for expanding collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment.
A discussion of antimicrobial resistance followed, where Prof Hannant described how the horse, as an example, was generally very good at fighting disease naturally, but it couldn't keep up with rapid changes, such as constantly mutating viruses and assaults from 'exotic' diseases.
New antimicrobials were not being developed and with resistance developing to many groups, the armoury against bacterial disease was not so effective any more, he said.
Prof Hannant said: "No new antibiotics are being developed as the companies involved are fed up with this situation – they know in few years that product will not be useful because bugs will have become resistant to it."
Picking up the resistance baton, Colin Roberts, direct of studies in veterinary science at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, asked the audience: "When do we need to use antimicrobials in practice? Go back and discuss this with your clinicians."
Dr Roberts showed his support for the concept of antimicrobial stewardship to keep the products that are still effective for as long as possible. He agreed with BSAVA's 'PROTECT your antibacterials' message and BEVA's 'Protect Me' approach that cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and macrolides should not be used without culture and sensitivity testing as a general rule in practice.
"Antimicrobial therapy is often irrational – such as when used in castrations, superficial wounds and recurrent airway obstruction in the horse.
"The immune system is there for a reason. Most of the time things will get better anyway, through an animal's natural immunity," he said.
"I believe we sometimes will give antimicrobials when they're not necessary. I urge all practitioners to think very carefully before giving antimicrobials."
Dr Roberts also addressed the issue of anthelmintic resistance in horse worming products, especially in relation to cyathostomin nematodes, now considered the most significant equine parasite. There are only a limited number of anthelmintics for tackling this parasite as the 'old fashioned' ways of interval and strategic dosing to control worms had selected for resistance to the products.
He suggested targeted dosing and using faecal worm egg counts to establish worm burdens for all animals. Those horses with a positive count could then be dosed as appropriate. This, he said, could work out as more economical and may delay the development of resistance, as well as cutting down on the use of anthelmintics.
A discussion of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations offered a different perspective between the researchers' talks, with the VMD's John Hall addressing delegates on inspection of premises and the duties of medicines retailers.
He stressed the importance of the role of the SQP in customer transactions and the responsibility of prescribing. This refers to the action of assessing the customer's requirements and deciding on the most appropriate medicine to supply, he said.
"For example, if someone comes in and asks for X wormer for their horse and you don't feel it's appropriate from what they've told you, don't sell it to them. Tell them they need Y wormer instead and don't be swayed by them. That's your responsibility as an SQP."
The Central College of Animal Studies' CPD event was held on September 19, 2013. Delegates were awarded six hours of CPD, and 37 AMTRA-accredited SQP points. More information about the college can be found at www.ccoas.com
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