World Antimicrobial Awareness Week: Best Practices for Combating Antimicrobial Resistance
18 November 2021, Washington, DC - In honor of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW), FAO North America hosted a high-level roundtable on combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) for the health of people, animals, and the environment. The event featured experts from FAO, the US government, and academia who discussed the many angles required to combat AMR.
The session, moderated by Keith Sumption, Chief Veterinary Officer at FAO, emphasized how AMR in food and agriculture poses risks to our food systems, livelihoods, economies, and to animal and plant production. “We have been shocked by the levels of mortality already with COVID, but that figure is likely to be greatly exceeded by the losses every year from AMR,” said Sumption. In her opening remarks, Jocelyn Brown Hall, Director, FAO North America, further detailed the risks involved with not acting against AMR. “Not only is this a threat to our public health and food security, but there is an economic downside to antimicrobial misuse – the global economy stands to lose more than USD 6 trillion annually,” stated Brown Hall.
“Overuse, misuse, and inappropriate use of antimicrobials in humans, animals and plants will accelerate the emerging and spread of antimicrobial resistance,” stated Junxia Song, Senior Animal Health Officer, FAO. Song discussed the work that FAO has been doing to combat AMR since 2000 and highlighted the recent release of the new 2021-2025 FAO Action Plan on AMR. The aim is to help reduce levels of AMR across the food and agriculture sector and to preserve the ability to treat infections with effective and safe antimicrobials. Nigel Gibbens, Senior Advisor, AMR Multistakeholder Partnership Platform, FAO, spoke about the new AMR Multistakeholder Partnership Platform, which will serve as a vehicle for governments, academia, international organizations, NGOs, the private sector, and civil society to strengthen global governance and make progress in areas where it is more difficult.
“A part of the solution is developing new antimicrobials,” says Kate Werley, Legislative Director, Congressman Mike Doyle’s Office. Werley discussed the shrinking antimicrobial pipeline and how fewer pharmaceutical companies are developing new antimicrobials because of the high research and development costs and low revenue, which places them at risk of bankruptcy. The PASTEUR Act, a newly introduced bipartisan bill, aims to create contracts for pharmaceutical companies to pay a certain amount each year based on the critical need to reinvigorate research and development of new antimicrobials.
Demonstrating the interconnectivity of animal health, environmental health, and human health, Dr. Chelsey Shivley, Veterinary Epidemiologist, USDA APHIS, reviewed USDA APHIS’ work on promoting antimicrobial stewardship through monitoring, education, outreach, and collaboration. “Antimicrobials are a critical tool in protecting animal health and welfare,” stated Shivley. APHIS is engaged in projects to better understand AMR in animals and addressing AMR in the environment – specifically looking at how wildlife contributes to the spread of resistant bacteria. Part of this work involves improving communications tools to get key information back to producers who can optimize antimicrobial use on the farm.
“The best way to reduce the impact of antimicrobial-resistant infections in animals is to keep them healthy in the first place,” stated Dr. Thomas Wittum, Professor and Department Chair at the Ohio State University, discussing the many ways in which farmers and other workers can prevent the need for antimicrobials through vaccination, biosecurity measures, good nutrition, and access to clean water. Wittum also discussed how, in certain cases, antimicrobials are needed, and that it is important to use them correctly – after the use of appropriate diagnostic tools. “If we don’t address the problem globally, we can’t address the problem in our own countries,” stated Wittum, urging for global collaboration and knowledge sharing. The Infectious Diseases Institute at the Ohio State University hosts the FAO AMR Reference Center for the United States. The Reference Center supports the design and conducting training programs on AMR surveillance in food and agriculture, providing support for the establishment and implementation of AMR surveillance programs in food and agriculture in low-and middle-income countries.
“By identifying a shared and unified AMR curriculum, we can help to build in some of the contexts of one health early on,” said Dr. Paul Plaummer, Executive Director of the National Institute on AMR Research and Education (NIAMRRE). The AMR curriculum that NIAMRRE is working on would unify One Health components that could be utilized across multiple professions and multiple groups of students from K-12.
Cortney Price, Behavioural Science Expert at FAO, discussed why education alone is often not enough to enable sustainable behaviour change. “Extensive FAO studies have found that farmer knowledge and attitudes toward antimicrobials and AMR do not generally predict their practices,” stated Price. Context is often more influential than knowledge, he explained, which is why FAO is running its first behavioural science field pilots to explore how - in addition to training - changes in the context around decisions and behaviours can promote improved practices.
The timely session highlighted key actions that are needed and how, if action is not taken, the risk of AMR is going to increase very significantly over the next years. Panelists called on policymakers, researchers, veterinarians, healthcare professionals and individuals to spread awareness and stop resistance. By bringing up the issue of antimicrobial overuse and misuse in all sectors, we can begin to make a difference and avoid the catastrophic predictions that are expected to unfold.
Additional resources
Watch the recording: https://bit.ly/Nov18recording
Speaker bios: https://bit.ly/SpeakerBios1118
Speaker Presentations:
Junxia Song, Senior Animal Health Officer, FAO https://bit.ly/3nH5nX9
Nigel Gibbens, Senior Advisor, FAO https://bit.ly/30WTGCO
Kate Werley, Legislative Director, Congressman Mike Doyle’s Office https://bit.ly/3l1XvOa
Chelsey Shivley, Veterinary Medical Officer, AMR Coordinator, USDA APHIS https://bit.ly/3xeXV8t
Paul Plummer, Executive Director, National Institute on AMR Research and Education (NIAMRRE) https://bit.ly/3oVuPYl
Cortney Price, Behavioral Science Expert, FAO https://bit.ly/3DI2bjf
Learn more about World Antimicrobial Awareness Week: