Challenges of antimicrobial consumption surveillance in food-producing animals in sub-Saharan African countries: Patterns of antimicrobials imported in Cameroon from 2014 to 2019

Objective: Antimicrobial consumption surveillance is a useful tool for planning antimicrobial resistance control strategies and risk analysis. The present study was carried out to evaluate the consumption trends of antimicrobials for veterinary use in food-producing animals in Cameroon from 2014 to 2019. Methods: Data on quantities of classes of active substances were collected from the records of the technical authorization to import veterinary drugs of suppliers' invoices at the Ministry of Livestock (MINEPIA); animal population data were collected from the FAO-Stat database. Results: The study revealed that 217.67 tonnes of antimicrobials (by weight of active substance) were imported during the 6-year period, with an average of 36.28 +/- 10.11 tonnes per year. Tetracyclines (31.71%), sulfonamides (23.84%), quinolones (11.11%) and p-lactams (10.17%) were the most commonly imported classes of antimicrobials. With regard to the importance of veterinary antimicrobials to human medicine, critically important antimicrobial (34.3%), reserve (4.6%) and watch (25.5%) groups as classified by the WHO AWaRe categorization were recorded. Overall, a mean of 5.24 +/- 1.40 mg/PCU (population correction unit) was used in all food-producing animals during the 6-year period. However, the mean quantity of antimicrobials adjusted by animal biomass was highest in poultry (213.32 +/- 50.26 mg/kg), followed by pigs (63.04 +/- 18.87 mg/kg), cattle (4.11 +/- 2.20 mg/kg), sheep (0.83 +/- 0.43 mg/kg) and goats (0.47 +/- 0.24 mg/kg). Conclusion: Strict surveillance systems of antimicrobial consumption in the country are vital to optimize control strategies. Monitoring importation data of veterinary antimicrobial products could be useful for sub-Saharan African countries to quantify consumption and estimate trends for antimicrobial usage effectively. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.