Exploring the Use of Antibiotics on Small-Scale Pig Farms in Kiambu County, Kenya, 2022

Scott, Claire (2024). Exploring the Use of Antibiotics on Small-Scale Pig Farms in Kiambu County, Kenya, 2022. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857083

Practices around antibiotic use, such as drivers for use and administration of antibiotics are currently unknown for small-scale pig farms in Kiambu County – a peri-urban area of Nairobi. It is also not known to what extent antibiotics are used to prevent, manage or treat disease or for growth promotion in these animals, or whether seeking advice from AHSPs is associated with improved antibiotic use practices for these farmers.

Murungi et al. discuss food safety concerns owing to an increase in demand and therefore supply of pork in Nairobi, Kenya (2021). One such concern was that withdrawal periods after administering antibiotics were often not observed by small-scale pig farmers in peri-urban areas of Nairobi. Abattoir testing for antibiotic residues has since been completed from meat samples from one local independent abattoir (Bor et al., unpublished). Local independent abattoirs are predominantly supplied by small farms in the immediate neighbouring areas, with approximately 10 pigs per farm (Murungi et al., 2021). This analysis found 34% of pork samples collected tested positive for the presence of antibiotic residues and has therefore added to these food safety concerns.

Therefore, this study aims to understand pig health management practices and use of therapeutic and prophylactic pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, on small-scale pig farms in Kiambu County, and offer possible future improvements in this area.

Data description (abstract)

Practices around antibiotic use (ABU), such as drivers for use and administration of antibiotics, were unknown for small-scale pig farms in Kiambu County – a peri-urban area of Nairobi. Murungi et al. discussed food safety concerns owing to an increase in demand and therefore supply of pork in Nairobi, Kenya (2021). One such concern was that withdrawal periods after administering antibiotics were often not observed by small-scale pig farmers in peri-urban areas of Nairobi. Abattoir testing for antibiotic residues has since been completed from meat samples from one local independent abattoir (Bor et al., 2023) which is predominantly supplied by small farms in the immediate neighbouring areas (Murungi et al., 2021). This analysis found 41% of pork samples collected tested positive for the presence of antibiotic residues, adding to these food safety concerns.

Therefore, this study aimed to understand ABU on small-scale pig farms in Kiambu County and offer possible future improvements in this area. To do this, we first wanted to understand which ABU collection method was most appropriate to understand ABU at the farm-level in this context. We undertook a problem identification and exploration project to evaluate methods for collecting instances of ABU in this specific context by trialling four methods in parallel: waste bucket analysis; medicine-recording sheets; weekly semi-structured interview and the ‘Drug Bag’.

To evaluate these methods, we recruited 13 farms into the project. Following an initial interview, we placed waste buckets and medicine recording sheets onto the farms and visited farms approximately weekly for around one month. At each weekly visit, we carried out semi-structured interview to explore instances of ABU over the previous week and completed an audit of the waste bucket and medicine recording sheet. On the final visit we also completed the 'Drug Bag', which is an exercise in which participants sort a bag of antibiotics purchased from the study area into those that have been used during the previous month. Triangulating between these methods allowed us to, both, evaluate the success of each method and explore ABU practices on the study farms.

In order to provide further insight, we also carried out semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with animal health professionals operating in the area. We completed three key informant interviews with government veterinarians, one focus group discussion with private veterinarians and one focus group discussion with private animal health assistants.

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