A survey questionnaire was conducted to investigate the use of antibiotics on 136 dairy farms in Khartoum state/ Sudan. The survey revealed that 49.3% of the farms owners were illiterate and 35.3% did not complete their education. 80% of the farms lacked written records, 75.7% had no written plans for treating sick animals with antibiotics, 17.6% of the farms completed the course of treatment and only 4.4% of the farms determined the antibiotic withdrawal period. Antibiotic-treated cows were physically separated from other milking cows in 19% of the visited farms, 8.8% of the farms milked the treated cows in a separate milking units and their milk was added to the farm whole milk in 86% of the farms. Mastitis (89%) followed by pneumonia (79%), enteritis (53%), metritis (46%), foot rot (41%) and eye infection (22%) were the most prominent diseases in dairy farms. Penicillins (83%) and Tetracyclines (78%) were mostly used for the treatment of the cases specially mastitis and in dry cows therapy. Tylosine (65%), Gentamycin (62%) and Sulpha drugs (43%) were mostly used in the treatment of other diseases. These antibiotics were obtained from veterinary pharmacies (89.7%) and venders (10.3%) without prescription and they were used for therapeutic purposes in 81% of the farms. Only 31.6% of the farms allowed veterinarians to administer these antibiotics. Also 78.7% of the antibiotic users and 56% of the milk consumers lack knowledge about the emerging threat of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria and/ or antibiotic residues in animal products. Milk samples were collected and investigated for the presence of penicillins. 37% of the samples were found positive for Penicillin. Taken together, these results obviously demonstrated that antibiotics were extensively misused in the dairy farms. These findings may be useful in preventing the antibiotic resistance and developing new strategies for prudent usage of antibiotics.
