Optimal use of antibiotics in animals? There’s an app for that

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top 10 global health threats facing humanity, according to the World Health Organization. The misuse and overuse of antimicrobials are two key reasons for the increase in bacteria that no longer respond to medicines.

A new tool to help veterinarians combat AMR has been developed though a collaboration between the University of Calgary, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), and Stewardship of Antimicrobials by Veterinarians Initiative working with Firstline – Clinical Decisions.

• Photo above: Herman Barkema and Dana Jelinski were part of a collaboration, led by John Conly, that developed a smartphone app that gives veterinarians guidelines for prescribing optimal antibiotic dosages.

“This app gives veterinarians guidelines for prescribing antibiotics for species-specific conditions. This is a novel tool which we hope will help promote the optimal use of antibiotics with the aim of reducing antimicrobial resistance,” says Dr. John Conly, MD, infectious disease specialist at the Cumming School of Medicine.

The idea came from a similar novel app, which Conly had helped develop for human health at the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services.

“We saw this as an excellent opportunity to make that happen for animal health,” says Dr. Herman Barkema, DVM, PhD, professor of epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and scientific director of the Alberta-wide AMR - One Health Consortium, who worked on the project.

Useful treatment info for multiple species in the palm of your hand

“Then we thought, okay, we don't just want to make an app, we want it to be really useful and we want it to be used,” says Barkema. “So, the team at UCalgary connected with the people at the CVMA and with their working groups on antimicrobials. Because for human health, it's only one species. In veterinary medicine, we have all these species with different conditions that we want to tackle.”

“The goal was to successfully create a true algorithmic digital app to facilitate optimal veterinary prescribing of antibiotics from the palm of your hand,” adds Conly.

To our knowledge, this is one of the first digital apps to facilitate antimicrobial prescribing for veterinarians, and the U of C research team has been at the forefront.

The newly launched Firstline – Clinical Decisions app offers point-of-care treatment recommendations and other reference material for a wide range of animal health conditions in a wide range of species. It’s an ideal tool for rural mixed-practice veterinarians who treat companion animals like cats and dogs, as well as cattle, pigs, poultry, horses, and other species.

The app is available to veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and veterinary students across Canada who are CVMA members. Users who aren’t registered with the CVMA can email Firstline – Clinical Decisions to receive a courtesy download.

Helping reduce antimicrobial resistance one sick animal at time

Barkema says while veterinarians won’t pull up the app for every case of an infectious disease, particularly the more common ones, “not only will some of the considerations be new to them, it will also be a tool that they can use in discussion with the farmers.”

Conly calls it a true One Health app, because ensuring veterinarians choose the most appropriate antibiotic for the disease they’re tackling will help reduce drug resistance that might impact the health of animals, people, and the environment.

“One of the main measures of success will be if this initiative takes off globally,” says Conly. “Such a platform can be a used as a stepping stone for multiple jurisdictions around the world — a platform for others to emulate globally that facilitates optimal prescribing for use of antimicrobials in animals that are critically important agents for humans.”