| Summary: | A cross-sectional baseline survey was conducted at Kibaha Town Council (KTC), Pwani Region (Tanzania), to assess the awareness and practices of smallholder dairy producers towards antimicrobial use (AMU), a major cause of foodborne antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in livestock production systems. The aim was to improve consumers’ confidence in the consumption of milk and other dairy products. Quantitative data were collected from a total of 30 randomly selected respondents from a sampling frame of households keeping dairy cattle in 3 administrative wards of Tumbi, Picha ya Ndege, and Maili Moja. A structured questionnaire was administered through face-to-face conversations between the interviewer and the interviewees. Six other respondents participated in the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for qualitative data collection. The quantitative data were analyzed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS, Version 16) and MS Office Excel 2010 for window packages. There were more male respondents (63.3%) than female respondents, whereas the level of education was primary for 46.7%, secondary for 33.3%, and tertiary level for the remaining 20%. About 76.6% of them were using antimicrobials to treat lactating dairy cows, mainly oxytetracycline (OTC 20%), penicillin, and Peni-Strep. Twice the number of males (53.3%) used antimicrobials compared to females (23.3%). Respondents with tertiary education rarely administered antimicrobials themselves. The common diseases being treated were diarrhea (46.7%), mastitis (43.3%), and respiratory diseases (36.7%). A proportion of milk from sick animals (those treated with antimicrobials) was fed to calves (33.3%), sold to milk collection centers (26.7%) where it goes through normal market channels, 26.7% fed to other animals while little is consumed by the family at home (6.7%). In conclusion, it should be noted that milk producers administer antimicrobials themselves even when the animals are being milked. This situation poses health challenges among milk consumers. We advise dairy producers to avoid unnecessary AMU.
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