Veterinary Drug Prescribing Practices at AtesoVeterinary Clinic ofMasha Woreda, Sheka Zone, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

The rational use of drugs in veterinary medicine has various significances, such as reducing the risk of drug resistance, increasing efficacy, reducing drug residue, and decreasing adverse drug reactions. The objectiveof this study is to evaluate types of rational use of veterinary drugs prescribed by veterinarians in the veterinary clinics of the Masha district. A sample was selected using a systematic random sampling method and the sampling unit was an animal patient encountered at Ateso veterinary clinic for the treatment of acute and/or chronic illness. A retrospective study was conducted to assess veterinary drug prescribing practices at Ateso woreda veterinary clinics in the south west areas of Ethiopia. A total of 920cases were recorded from the case registration books at the Ateso Veterinary clinic for diseases treated between January 2021 and February 2022. The study indicates thatin Atesoveterinary clinic, 111(12.1%) young,548(59.6%) adult and 261(28.4%) wereold.In this retrospective study, 654(71.1%) cattle, 62(6.7%) chicken, 66(7.2%) goat and 138(15.0%) were sheep in diagnosed animals. Regarding the agro-ecological partition in studyarea, 542(58.9%), 129(14.0%) and 249(27.1%) of diagnosed animals were highland, lowland and midland respectively.Thestudy resultsshowed that for a total of 920 cases diagnosed at clinic, 1788different drugs were prescribed, with an average per encounter of 1.9.Among the total drugs,Penstrep(31.7%), Albendazole (23.3%),Oxytetracycline(19.4%),Ivermectine(12.3%,Sulfa drugs (6.7%),Isomitamidium chloride (3.7%) and Veridium(2.9%) were the most leading prescribed drugs. All drugs were prescribed by the generic name without any laboratory support of the disease. The prescribing practices showed 51.1% of antibiotics and 23.3%of anthelmintic was prescribed for veterinary diseases treatment at Ateso veterinary clinic. Of the prescribed drugs, 7 % Anthelmentics (Albendazole) was prescribed irrationally to treat diseases that were tentatively diagnosed as infectious diseases. Similarly, 2.1 % Antibiotics were prescribed for parasitic disease. In conclusion, this study revealed problems in antibiotics andAnthelmintics use, description of routes of administration and length of treatment, and shortage of laboratory diagnostic facilities. Therefore, veterinary drugs particularly Antibiotics and Anthelmintics should be used appropriately to safeguard the public from residual drug impacts and resistance development.