OIE guide promotes responsible anthelmintic drug use

Guidance published recently describes the dangers of resistance to deworming drugs and the ways people responsible for animal care can help preserve drug effectiveness.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is providing the document, “Responsible and Prudent Use of Anthelmintic Chemicals to Help Control Anthelmintic Resistance in Grazing Livestock Species” (PDF). The guidance contains messages on how veterinarians, animal owners and caretakers, and governmental authorities can help protect animal health and welfare through careful drug administration.

“The aim of this document is to promote the prudent use of the few classes of anthelmintic chemicals that remain available for parasite control, with an emphasis on their use in food-producing ruminants such as sheep, goats and cattle,” the guidance states.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration veterinarians were among the global experts who collaborated on the guidance, which includes overviews on the causes of drug resistance and the global state of drug resistance among common parasites of ruminants, descriptions of the challenges in reducing the danger to animals, and descriptions of the research and training needed to overcome those challenges.

The document also includes details on ways to target treatment to affected animals, preserve untreated populations to reduce selection for resistance, limit use of long-acting and multidrug products depending on the risk of transmitting resistant parasites, and use nonchemical management methods to reduce worm transmission and control helminth burdens.

“Veterinarians should undertake and maintain training and remain familiar with current scientific thinking on the correct choice, use and administration of anthelmintic chemicals,” the document states. “They can add value by training farmers in anthelmintic chemical choice and use and providing a recording system to clients.”

FDA officials said in a related announcement that anthelmintic resistance is a problem throughout the world, and resistance can have far-ranging effects where grazing livestock are used to cultivate land and provide transportation in addition to their uses for milk, meat, and fiber.

FDA officials have campaigned for years for practices that preserve the effectiveness of antiparasitic drugs, enlisting veterinarians’ help to change practices on farms. Almost a decade ago, for example, FDA officials delivered presentations to AVMA leaders on the need to encourage use of management practices that preserve anthelmintic effectiveness.

In recent years, agency officials have asked the makers of horse- and livestock-use dewormers to add information on drug resistance and practices that could reduce that risk, surveyed veterinarians on their perceptions of the danger posed by antiparasitic drug resistance to horses and ruminants, and published educational videos for animal owners and producers on antiparasitic drug resistance.