Okafor Chika C, Ekakoro John E, Caldwell Marc, Strand Elizabeth B
Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Aug 16;12(16):2088. doi: 10.3390/ani12162088.
To improve judicious antimicrobial use (AMU) in food animals in the United States, all feed additives that were medically important antimicrobials were moved from over the counter to Veterinary Feed Directive in 2017. This action required a change in behavior of producers' AMU practices. Because emotions are important aspects of behavior, several behavioral interventions have targeted people's emotions as means of effecting change. Hence, understanding and incorporating the emotional experiences of producers towards current AMU practices can be a starting point to making future behavioral changes that could reduce the emergence of antimicrobial resistance challenge. Between June 2017 and March 2018, seven focus group meetings of Tennessee (TN) beef and dairy cattle producers were conducted to evaluate producers' emotional views regarding responsible AMU in TN cattle. Sixty-two TN cattle producers participated and emotively expressed the following: (1) deep connections to animals in ways that improve animal and public health; (2) pride in their quality of products; (3) distress that consumers misconceive their AMU practices as indiscriminate; and (4) recommended that producers be more transparent about their AMU practices and the public improve their awareness for detecting marketers' deceptive product labels that take advantage of public ignorance. Knowledge of these producers' emotions would help educators target more successful behavioral change campaigns, improving stewardship in AMU practices among producers.
为改善美国食用动物的合理抗菌药物使用（AMU）情况，2017年所有曾作为重要医用抗菌药物的饲料添加剂从非处方用药转为需遵循《兽医饲料指令》。这一举措要求生产者的抗菌药物使用行为做出改变。由于情感是行为的重要方面，一些行为干预措施将人们的情感作为实现改变的手段。因此，了解并纳入生产者对当前抗菌药物使用做法的情感体验，可能是未来做出行为改变的起点，这些改变可以减少抗菌药物耐药性挑战的出现。在2017年6月至2018年3月期间，针对田纳西州（TN）肉牛和奶牛养殖户召开了七次焦点小组会议，以评估养殖户对田纳西州牛负责任抗菌药物使用的情感看法。62位田纳西州的养殖户参与其中，并激动地表达了以下观点：（1）通过改善动物和公共卫生的方式与动物建立深厚联系；（2）对其产品质量感到自豪；（3）因消费者将他们的抗菌药物使用行为误解为不加区分而感到苦恼；（4）建议养殖户在抗菌药物使用做法上更加透明，公众提高识别利用公众无知的营销商欺骗性产品标签的意识。了解这些养殖户的情感，将有助于教育工作者开展更成功的行为改变活动，改善养殖户抗菌药物使用做法中的管理水平。
