A peer-reviewed survey of commercial broiler farmers in northern Peninsular Malaysia has mapped the perceptions, practices and drivers behind antibiotic use on farm, publishing online 4 October 2026 in Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

The study, authored by Yusniza Mohd Yusof, Latiffah Hassan, Roziah Mohd Rasdi, Nor Fasihah Abdullah Sani, Siti Zubaidah Ramanoon and Nur Indah Ahmad, addresses a gap that matters well beyond Malaysia: understanding why poultry producers reach for antibiotics is a precondition for any stewardship program that actually changes behavior.

Why does farmer motivation matter for antimicrobial resistance?

Regulators can restrict antibiotic sales and tighten prescription rules, but uptake at the farm level depends on what farmers believe antibiotics do for their flocks and what pressures — economic, biological or informational — shape their choices. Broiler production, with its short grow-out cycles and tight margins, is a setting where those pressures concentrate.

Research of this kind feeds directly into national antimicrobial resistance action plans, because it identifies the levers that move practice: whether farmers distinguish therapeutic from prophylactic use, how they source advice, and how disease risk and market conditions weigh in their decisions.

What did the study do?

The research team surveyed commercial broiler farmers operating in the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia, collecting data on three linked dimensions:

• Perceptions — how farmers understand antibiotic effectiveness, resistance risk and the consequences of misuse.
• Practices — how antibiotics are selected, administered and timed during the production cycle.
• Drivers — the economic, informational and structural factors that push farmers toward or away from antibiotic use.

The full methodology, sample size and quantitative findings appear in the article itself; readers who need the survey instrument and response data should consult the published paper in Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

What changes at the barn level?

For poultry veterinarians and advisors, the value of perception-and-practice research lies in targeting. Stewardship messaging that assumes farmers misuse antibiotics out of ignorance often misses the mark; surveys repeatedly show that cost pressure, fear of mortality spikes and limited access to veterinary advice drive antibiotic decisions as much as knowledge gaps do.

Studies like this one give extension services and pharmaceutical companies a factual basis for interventions — training on disease prevention, biosecurity investment or alternative health management — rather than one-size-fits-all reduction targets.

Food-animal and public-health context

Antimicrobial use in broiler production sits at the intersection of food-animal productivity and public-health risk. Resistant organisms moving through the poultry chain can reach consumers and the environment, which is why the World Health Organization and national agencies, including Malaysia's veterinary authority, have pushed for measured reduction in farm-level use.

Because Malaysia supplies a substantial share of the region's poultry meat, farm-level antibiotic practice there carries regional relevance for resistance surveillance and trade standards alike.

What comes next?

The authors' dataset provides a baseline against which future stewardship interventions in the Malaysian broiler sector can be measured, and the paper signals where follow-up work — on farmer education channels and access to veterinary services — is most likely to change prescribing-and-administering behavior on commercial farms.

The Vet Scope will update this story with specific survey findings once the full text becomes available.