Antibiotic misuse by farmers in Ngoma subcounty Nakaseke district, Uganda

A cross-sectional study was done in Ngoma sub-county, Nakaseke district to assess the extent of antibiotic abuse by farmers and the associated precipitating factors. Simple random sampling without replacement was used to select farms and drug shops. Single visits were made and respondents interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. Drug shops were the main source of antibiotics to farmers (80.6%). Tetracycline was the most used drug (65.5%) followed by Penicillin (21.9%). Most farmers (90.2%) were ignorant of the drug withdrawal period phenomena and 55.3% were not informed about the same by the veterinary practitioners during therapeutic intervention. Veterinary practitioners did not follow up treatment cases (59.7% of farmers). This could have been partially responsible for consumption of milk within the withdrawal period and incomplete treatment regimen. The drug shops were mainly operated by unqualified persons. Antibiotics were not administered at right doses. Economic factors influenced antibiotic misuse. To prevent unauthorized people from dispensing drugs, let alone in absence of proper prescriptions, farmers needed to be sensitized on the importance of rational drug use. Relevant laws should be enforced. There was a need to carry out more studies like this in order to ascertain the magnitude of drug abuse in the livestock sector nation-wide.