Knowledge of farmers in antibiotic usage and investigation of antibiotic residues in meats in the Sunyani Municipality of Ghana

The pervasiveness of antibiotic residues in animal foods undermines the safety and security of consumers. The consequences on human health through the development of antibiotic resistance is a growing disquiet to veterinary, health practitioners and stallholders. This study evaluates the knowledge of farmers in antibiotic usage and the presence of antibiotic residues in chevon (lamb meat) and beef in Sunyani, Ghana. A total of 150 farmers were randomly selected and interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. In addition, 36 samples comprising 18 beef and 18 chevon samples were analyzed for antibiotic residues using a Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. The majority of the farmers kept only goats (30%), practiced the semi-intensive system (96%), had ever experienced infections on their farm (99.3%) and had ever used antibiotics (100%). The farmers used antibiotics mainly for therapeutic purposes (68%), encountered more diarrhea cases (65.3%), and used mostly tetracycline (56.7%) to treat their animals because of its effectiveness (84%). Most of the farmers confirmed they do not have in-depth knowledge of antibiotics (56%), received information about antibiotics mainly from veterinary officers (56%) and bought their antibiotics from veterinary shops/clinics (62.7%). The majority do not observe withdrawal periods (53.3%), were unaware misuse of antibiotics can promote pathogen resistance (76.5%), but knew consumption of antibiotic residues in meat will be harmful to humans (60%). The examination of the beef and chevon samples revealed the presence of amoxicillin, chlortetracycline, ciprofloxacin, danofloxacin, doxycycline, norfloxacin, oxytetracycline, sulfadiazine and tylosine at varying concentrations. Chloramphenicol and metronidazole were not detected in the meat samples. This study revealed that the farmers had limited knowledge in antibiotic usage and some antibiotic residues were present in chevon and beef sold in Sunyani, Ghana.