MAVIS Edition 128

VMD representatives attended the FAO Sustainable Livestock Conference to engage with the wider sector and highlight the importance of including responsible use of medicines in the sustainable livestock narrative. Whilst in Rome we met with the FAO AMR team to share ideas and strengthen this key working partnership. The Conference was used as an opportunity to launch the One Health/AMR Group of Friends, which is a collection of member state representatives working together to find solutions to the global threat of AMR. This group will mirror those in Geneva and New York and is co-chaired by the UK and Kenya.
The UK Government representative for the Quadripartite AMR Partnership Platform will be the Chief Veterinary Officer, Professor Christine Middlemiss. We are delighted to have Professor Christine Middlemiss as a high-level champion of AMR and our international engagement work will benefit from her high-profile reputation. The Partnership Platform aims to catalyse a global movement for action against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by fostering cooperation between a diverse range of stakeholders at all levels across the One Health spectrum.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate and Department for Health and Social Care are stepping up preparations for the AMR High-Level Meeting at the UN General Assembly in 2024. We are engaging with international partners with the aim of securing an ambitious set of evidence-based commitments in the published declaration.
We continue to contribute to national level (UK Government International Development white paper) and international (WHO Pandemic Accord) governance processes to ensure clear inclusion of AMR and One Health.

3.2 Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination (DARC) Group

The DARC group held a meeting on the 19 September 2023. The meeting included an update on recent findings from across the UK on AMR in bacteria of importance to animal and public health. The meeting included updates from the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Agri-Food Biosciences Institute and Scotland’s Rural College of Veterinary Services. An update and discussion on the development of the 2024 to 2029 AMR National Action Plan (NAP) was held. The next meeting is scheduled to take place on the 30 November 2023. Minutes from previous meetings are available on GOV.UK.

3.3 Antibiotic Usage and Stewardship

3.4 Surveillance and Resistance

VMD’s pilot projects under the PATH-SAFE programme are ongoing to help fill knowledge gaps in our understanding of AMR in agri-food systems. Sampling of bulk milk in collaboration with the National Milk laboratories is due to conclude this month, as is the sampling of livestock feed and imported feed ingredients in collaboration with AIC. Analysis and write-up will continue until March 2024. There was a recent PATH-SAFE webinar detailing these pilots, with a focus on the important industry-government collaborations involved (recording of this can be accessed on the PATH-SAFE website under ‘past webinars’). The surveys of AMR in sheep and cattle are also ongoing to produce baseline data to enhance UKs harmonised monitoring surveillance.

3.5 Policy and Communications

AMR National Action Plan: The VMD are coordinating the development of Animal, Plant, Food and Environmental elements of the 2024 - 2029 AMR National Action Plan (NAP). VMD have been running internal and external stakeholder engagement events, to input into drafting outputs for the NAP and the DEFRA wide implementation plan.
The UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance Sales and Surveillance (VARSS) Report 2022 was published on 1 November and reports on veterinary antibiotic sales and resistance levels in the UK’s animal population.
We are working to prepare for WAAW 2023 and coordinating OGDs and external organisations’ activities.
The team is in the latter production stages of the Third One Health Report. This joint VMD/UKHSA report will bring together both antibiotic consumption and AMR data for the human and animal population for 2014 - 2019.