Antimicrobial use, residues and resistance in fish production in Africa: systematic review and meta-analysis.

In low- and middle-income countries, data on antimicrobial use (AMU) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in aquaculture are scarce. Therefore, summarizing documented data on AMU, antimicrobial residue (AR), and AMR in aquaculture in Africa is key to understanding the risk to public health. Google Scholar, PubMed, African Journals online, and Medline were searched for articles published in English and French following the PRISMA guidelines. A structured search string was used with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria to retrieve and screen the articles. The pooled prevalence and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for each pathogen-antimicrobial pair using random effects models. Among the 113 full-text articles reviewed, 41 met the eligibility criteria. The majority of the articles reported AMR (35; 85.4%), while a few were on AMU (3; 7.3%) and AR (3; 7.3%) in fish. The articles originated from West Africa (23; 56.1%), North Africa (8; 19.7%), and East Africa (7; 17.1%). Concerning the antimicrobial agents used in fish farming, tetracycline was the most common antimicrobial class used, which justified the high prevalence of residues (up to 56.7%) observed in fish. For AMR, a total of 69 antimicrobial agents were tested against 24 types of bacteria isolated. Bacteria were resistant to all classes of antimicrobial agents and exhibited high levels of multidrug resistance. Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus spp. were reported in 16, 10, and 8 studies, respectively, with multidrug resistance rates of 43.1% [95% CI (32.0-55.0)], 40.3% [95% CI (24.1-58.1)] and 31.3% [95% CI (17.5-49.4)], respectively. This review highlights the high multidrug resistance rate of bacteria from aquaculture to commonly used antimicrobial agents, such as tetracycline, ampicillin, cotrimoxazole, gentamicin, and amoxicillin, in Africa. These findings also highlighted the lack of data on AMU and residue in the aquaculture sector, and additional efforts should be made to fill these gaps and mitigate the burden of AMR on public health in Africa.

African swine fever in the northern regions of Cameroon: seroprevalence survey and spatiotemporal analysis of outbreaks from 2010 to 2017.

The present study was carried out to establish the spatiotemporal distribution of ASF between 2010 and 2017 in the Adamawa, North, and Far North regions of Cameroon. A retrospective study with data relating to the northern regions from epidemiological reports from target organizations in Cameroon was used to analyze outbreaks of ASF from 2010 to 2016. A prospective study consisting of risk factor analysis and serological investigation of anti-ASF antibodies and ASF RT-PCR antigen detection test in pig farms in the study regions with clinical suspicion of ASF was carried out in 2017. During the period 2010 to 2016, a total of 53 ASF outbreaks were reported and confirmed in the three northern regions of Cameroon and involved 4905 pigs (2232 deaths and 2673 slaughtered for sanitary measures). The seroprevalence for the 2017 serology survey was 5.23% (95% CI [3.57-6.89]) at the individual and 10.81% (95% CI [6.34-15.28]) at herd level. Region, management of farms system, on-farm slaughter by the owner (OR = 4.60; 95% CI [0.34-46.20]; p = 0.014), and selling of animals to community or to butchers (OR = 4.82; 95% CI [0.51-62.15]; p = 0.010) had significant effect on individual level seropositivity of ASF. The viral antigen was not detected by PCR. This study showed that ASF cases have decreased significantly in the northern regions of Cameroon following the epizootic 2010 outbreaks. The findings predict a better future for the pork farming in the regions through the enforcement of strategic measures.