Effect of antimicrobial stewardship on antimicrobial prescriptions for selected diseases of dogs in Switzerland

Abstract Background Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are important tools to foster prudent antimicrobial use. Objective To evaluate antimicrobial prescriptions by Swiss veterinarians before and after introduction of the online ASP AntibioticScout.ch in December 2016. Animals Dogs presented to 2 university hospitals and 14 private practices in 2016 or 2018 for acute diarrhea (AD; n = 779), urinary tract infection (UTI; n = 505), respiratory tract infection (RTI; n = 580), or wound infection (WI; n = 341). Methods Retrospective study. Prescriptions of antimicrobials in 2016 and 2018 were compared and their appropriateness assessed by a justification score. Results The proportion of dogs prescribed antimicrobials decreased significantly between 2016 and 2018 (74% vs 59%; P < .001). The proportion of prescriptions in complete agreement with guidelines increased significantly (48% vs 60%; P < .001) and those in complete disagreement significantly decreased (38% vs 24%; P < .001) during this time. Antimicrobial prescriptions for dogs with AD were significantly correlated with the presence of hemorrhagic diarrhea in both years, but a significantly lower proportion of dogs with hemorrhagic diarrhea were unnecessarily prescribed antimicrobials in 2018 (65% vs 36%; P < .001). In private practices, in 2018 a bacterial etiology of UTI was confirmed in 16% of dogs. Prescriptions for fluoroquinolones significantly decreased (29% vs 14%; P = .002). Prescriptions for antimicrobials decreased significantly in private practices for RTI (54% vs 31%; P < .001). Conclusion Antimicrobials were used more prudently for the examined indications in 2018 compared to 2016. The study highlights the continued need for ASPs in veterinary medicine.