Reference | Bester_2012_JoofFoPr (10365)

Commercial poultry production is undertaken by industrialized and free-range farming systems, and antibiotics are utilized both therapeutically and prophylactically. However, there is also a third farming system widespread in suburban and rural KwaZulu-Natal and, indeed, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where antibiotic usage is either limited or absent: namely, informal small-scale family farming (henceforth referred to as rural production), in which indigenous poultry roam freely and scavenge for food themselves. A single large commercial free-range farm in KwaZulu-Natal province assisted with samples from an in-house abattoir for broiler chickens (5 to 8 weeks old). Samples from industrialized chickens, both broilers (5 to 8 weeks old) and layers (36 to 54 weeks old), were collected at four abattoirs situated in KwaZulu-Natal. Adult indigenous chickens were collected from rural communities in Port Shepstone, Mvoti, Maphumulo, and Shongweni, all in KwaZulu-Natal. Two adult chickens were collected from every third household in each locality. The birds were slaughtered at the Biomedical Resource Unit (a laboratory animal science unit in the University of KwaZulu-Natal). No data on the specific antimicrobials used on the farms that supplied the abattoirs are available except what is known from commercial feed suppliers and legal usage. Antibiotics used in South African commercial poultry production as growth promoters and therapeutic treatment include tetracyclines (oxytetracycline and chlortetracycline) and macrolides (tylosin and kitamycin). Antibiotics indicated for therapeutic treatment only are beta-lactams (amoxycillin), quinolones (enrofloxacin and norfloxacin), and aminoglycosides (neomycin and spectinomycin).

Except for the rural chickens, all samples were collected randomly from abattoirs during 2008 and 2009. Samples were collected from the cecae.

AST Method: Agar Dilution

Reference explicitly reports AST breakpoints: True

Reference reports using a MIC table: Uncertain