Antimicrobial usage in the chicken farming in yaoundé, Cameroon: A cross-sectional study

Background: Antimicrobials are widely used in chicken production in Cameroon, but no quantitative data are available. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 98 farms holding 220,262 chickens, from February to May 2015 in six areas of Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, to describe and quantify the use of antimicrobials. Results: All the farms were using antimicrobials via drinking water administration. Twenty types of drugs containing antimicrobials belonging to 9 classes were recorded. 19.4 % of farms used antimicrobials for therapeutic purpose, 11.2 % for prophylactic purpose and 69.4 % for both therapeutic and prophylactic. No disease was recorded in 36. 7 % of farms during the last 3 months and 42.9 % of farms were not following withdrawal periods. Fluoroquinolones, sulfonamides, tetracyclines and nitrofurans were the antimicrobials commonly used by most farms (57.1, 53.1, 46.9 and 17.3 % respectively), whereas sulfonamides, tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones and nitrofurans were quantitatively the most used compounds (48.2, 26.5, 16.1 and 7.6 % of the total amount of antimicrobials used). The ratio of Used Daily Doses (UDD)/Defined Daily Doses (DDD) estimating correctness of dosing showed that enrofloxacin, sulfadimethoxine and trimethoprim were underdosed in most of the administrations whereas ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, erythromycin, flumequine, furaltadone, neomycin, sulfadiazine, sulfadimidin and sulfamerazine were usually overdosed. Conclusion: High and uncontrolled usage of antimicrobials (sulfonamides, tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones) was noted in chicken farming in Yaoundé, Cameroon, as well as usage of banned substances such as nitrofurans. It is therefore necessary to implement actions that will prevent the misuse of antimicrobials. © 2016 The Author(s).