Knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of local veterinary practitioners and dairy farmers to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and their intention to change to more responsible antimicrobial use practices

It uncovered the barriers and enablers to responsible AMU within the dairy sector and using COM-B model of behaviour change, proposed interventions which may be successfully implemented and sustained to promote responsible AMU on dairy farms.<br><br>Based on these findings, the Behaviour Change Wheel was used to propose potential behaviour change interventions to promote more responsible AMU behaviours for both dairy farmers and veterinarians.

As a final step, a multi-stakeholder workshop comprised of dairy farmers, dairy farm advisors, dairy technologists and a veterinarian (n=10) took place. Key stakeholders from the Northern Irish dairy sector rated the proposed behaviour change interventions using the APEASE criteria for behaviour change interventions and took part in a facilitated discussion for each intervention. The involvement of relevant stakeholders in the co-development of interventions helps to maximise the success rate of behaviour change interventions.

Farmer education programmes to improve awareness of their role in AMR, farmer peer information sharing groups for farmers to share experiences of reducing AMU successfully with their peers and encourage others to act and training to impart skills needed by farmers to reduce AMU while maintaining herd health and productivity were the top-rated interventions.<br><br>The use of the COM-B model has strengthened the understanding of the decision-making process undertaken by farmers and veterinarians when choosing to treat dairy cattle with antimicrobials.

This understanding coupled with the further step of encompassing behaviour change theory to facilitate responsible AMU can help implement interventions which have a greater chance of resulting in positive change and more responsible AMU on dairy farms. <br><br>