Improving institutional memory on challenges and methods for estimation
of pig herd antimicrobial exposure based on data from the Danish Veterinary
Medicines Statistics Program (VetStat)
With the increasing occurrence of antimicrobial resistance, more attention
has been directed towards surveillance of both human and veterinary
antimicrobial use. Since the early 2000s, several research papers on Danish pig
antimicrobial usage have been published, based on data from the Danish
Veterinary Medicines Statistics Program (VetStat). VetStat was established in
2000, as a national database containing detailed information on purchases of
veterinary medicine. This paper presents a critical set of challenges
originating from static system features, which researchers must address when
estimating antimicrobial exposure in Danish pig herds. Most challenges
presented are followed by at least one robust solution. A set of challenges
requiring awareness from the researcher, but for which no immediate solution
was available, were also presented. The selection of challenges and solutions
was based on a consensus by a cross-institutional group of researchers working
in projects using VetStat data. No quantitative data quality evaluations were
performed, as the frequency of errors and inconsistencies in a dataset will
vary, depending on the period covered in the data. Instead, this paper focuses
on clarifying how VetStat data may be translated to an estimation of the
antimicrobial exposure at herd level, by suggesting uniform methods of
extracting and editing data, in order to obtain reliable and comparable
estimates on pig antimicrobial consumption for research purposes.Comment: 25 pages, including two Appendices (pages not numbered). Title page,
including abstract, is on page 1. Body of text, including references,
abbreviation list and disclaimers for conflict of interest and funding, are
on pages 2-18. Two figures embedded in the text on pages 3 and 5. Appendix 1
starts on page 19, and Appendix 2 on page 2
