Surveillance of veterinary drug residues in pork meat, Madagascar

Antibiotics are used in animal feeds as growth promoters or for disease prevention and treatment. Drugs and metabolites are accumulated into body cells and are known as drug residue. Residual antimicrobials in food constitute an emerging risk for human health. Antibiotic residues in meat and other foods are suspected to be responsible for drug allergy and for evolution of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. In Mad-agascar, bacterial resistances against several antibiotics have been regularly observed in pathogens isolat-ed from human and pigs. Suspicions of drugs misuse in farms are frequently recorded by animal health professionals but no guidelines are available about the good use of antibiotics in livestock. This first study describes the high prevalence of pork meat contaminated by antimicrobial residues and sold at the urban markets of Antananarivo in Madagascar. 37.2% of our samples were tested positive to antimicrobial resi-dues. A significant increase between 2010 and 2011 results was observed, with 32% and 39% respective-ly. No significant differences were demonstrated between samples according sex, breed or age classes for individual animals. No differences between origins of pig farm were demonstrated. Pork meat samples originated from the same production area are less contaminated by drug residues when animals are slaughtered in urban abattoirs vs. in provincial abattoirs. Through this first step toward a national surveil-lance system, we confirmed that drug residues in animal products are a serious public health concern for Madagascar. (Résumé d'auteur