NEWS & REPORTS
Encouraging clients to hand back antibiotics
By Josh Loeb
VET practices are being asked to
register their interest in taking part in
a scheme that urges clients to hand
back unused antibiotics.
The 2023 Veterinary Antibiotic
Amnesty follows a successful pilot
of the scheme last year, when vet
practices across the UK collaborated
under a ‘One Health’ umbrella with
human healthcare community
pharmacies in the Midlands to collect
leftover antibiotics.
The amnesty promotes the safe
disposal of the medicines and
raises awareness about responsible
prescribing and risks posed by
antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
It will run during November,
overlapping with World Antibiotic
Awareness Week (18–24 November).
The Responsible Use of Medicines
in Agriculture Alliance Companion
Animal and Equine (RUMA CA&E)
group has produced a range of
resources that practices can use to get
the word out.
Fergus Allerton, AMR lead at
Linnaeus, who is helping coordinate
the scheme, said vets should be
advising clients to return unused
antibiotics to practices, rather
than keeping them at home, so the
medicines can go for incineration
along with other clinical waste.
‘Anything you prescribe, you are
still responsible for it until it either
finishes in the animal or is disposed
of safely, so we’re not asking people
to do anything above what is already
their legal responsibility,’ Allerton
said.
Although vets may sometimes feel
under pressure from pet owners to
prescribe antibiotics, he said this
may be ‘perceived’ rather than real
and there was a need to challenge
it and stick to the principles of
responsible stewardship. He also
suggested that both vets and NHS
doctors may sometimes be adopting
too much of a ‘just in case’ approach
whereby antibiotics are prescribed in
cases where it is arguably not strictly
necessary.
7 8/15 July 2023 | VET RECORD
7 News.indd 464
‘I think there’s been an
improvement in the public
awareness of AMR,’ Allerton said.
‘We have a more receptive audience
than maybe we had five or 10 years
ago.’
Ian Ramsay, professor of small
animal medicine at the University
of Glasgow and a past president of
the British Small Animal Veterinary
Association (BSAVA), is also
involved in the scheme.
He said: ‘When you refuse [to
prescribe] antibiotics, when you say
“You don’t need antibiotics”, you
are now less likely to get pushback
from the clients.’
But he added that there were
‘definitely still people who walk in
wanting antibiotics’.
Last year a total of 66 vet
practices participated in the
amnesty in some form, a quarter
of which got involved through the
BSAVA, which is backing the scheme
along with the BVA and several
other veterinary organisations. A
further 40 retrospectively expressed
interest, saying they would have
participated had they known about
the scheme (this has prompted
RUMA CA&E to ramp up its efforts
to publicise the scheme earlier this
year).
In all, 787 antibiotic tablets,
12 part boxes of antibiotics,
53 bottles of antibiotic eardrops
and 17 antibiotic injections were
recorded as having been collected
by participating practices last year,
but Ramsay said that due to under-
recording the real figures were likely
higher.
As part of the amnesty, survey
work was conducted to find out how
people were disposing of unused
veterinary antibiotics. It found the
most common means of disposal
was in household waste (42 per
cent of pet owners) – which may
go for incineration or into landfill
depending on where in the country
the household is situated – with
‘still got them’ (35 per cent) coming
a close second. Some pet owners
surveyed (19 per cent) said they
returned unused antibiotics to
their vet, while 4 per cent said
they flushed them down the toilet.
Anything However, researchers cautioned
that the sample size was small.
you
Ramsay said: ‘The reality is if
prescribe, somebody has piles of antibiotics
you are still in their house which they are not
responsible using for human health or for
for it until veterinary health, they should
not be there and they should be
it either
returning them for correct disposal.’
finishes in Asked whether there was
the animal or crossover between AMR in animals
is disposed of and in people, he added: ‘We’re
safely not doing this just for people, we’re
doing this because of antimicrobial
resistance in the species we look
after. The resistant microbes that
are in our dogs will affect other
dogs. That is definitely where my
motivation comes from: making
sure my hospital is as free of AMR as
it’s possible to be.
‘It’s correct to say there is only a
small amount of crossover, but it’s
not that there’s no crossover, and
it’s also worthwhile remembering
that, although the “bugs” may not
be the same, they can transfer the
resistance.’
Although the amnesty is
focused on antibiotics and runs
in November, practices are
encouraged to adopt the approach
throughout the year. The scheme
could also be expanded to cover
other types of medicines, such as
anthelmintics. ∙
04/07/2023 14:24:12