Metaphylaxis
The metaphylaxis (based on gr. Προφύλαξη, "protection", "prevention"; μέτα "to") referred to in the human medicine , the therapeutic -treatment or "cure" a patient after recovering from illness (as opposed to prophylaxis = preventive / prevention / Prevention ). In addition to follow-up examinations and follow-up therapies, metaphylaxis usually also includes recommendations for a changed lifestyle (e.g. dietary advice).
In veterinary medicine , especially in herd care, the term is used for special treatments that are carried out on animals that are not yet clinically ill. If an infectious disease or parasitosis occurs in an individual animal, all other animals in the herd are treated metaphylactically, as the same disease is likely to develop in them as well. It is therefore a special form of prophylaxis in well-founded suspected cases of a specific disease.
Since when using this method with antibiotics, however, all antibiotic-sensitive bacterial strains that would not have led to a disease, which an intact immune system of the respective individual could have dealt with, or which simply belong to the symbiotic microflora colonization, are killed to a considerable extent the competitive pressure of strains with resistance mutations that survive this treatment is removed, which can then lead to a greatly facilitated manifestation of this resistance in the genome of the pathogens as well as all other microbes involved. In breeding farms in which these measures are frequently used, an increasing number of pathogens (including human pathogens ) were found which had developed resistance to various antibiotics used there. Since these resistances spread through interspecific gene transfer and also accumulate in some species, this can subsequently lead to the development of multi-resistant germs (see MRSA ), against which therapy with antibiotics known to medicine has proven to be powerless.
For these reasons, the metaphylaxis with antibiotics in the herd operation is to be seen as critical and should be carefully considered, since careless use of this method will cause greater damage in the long term than can be avoided in the medium term.
literature
- Michael T. Madigan, John M. Martinko: Brock Microbiology; Pearson Studies; Edition: 11th, updated edition. (2009); ISBN 3827373581
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Tilman, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson, Rosamond Naylor & Stephen Polasky: Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices, Nature 418, 671-677 (August 8, 2002), doi : 10.1038 / nature01014
- ↑ Gilchrist, M., Greko, C., Wallinga, D., Beran, G., Riley, D., Thorne, P. (2007): The Potential Role of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in Infectious Disease Epidemics and Antibiotic Resistance. Environmental Health Perspectives , vol. 115, no. 2.