FAO gathers top food and agriculture experts in Washington DC for World Antibiotic Awareness Week to debate solutions for antimicrobial resistance
Washington DC – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Liaison Office for North America (FAOLOW) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) co-hosted a private roundtable discussion about the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and its impact on food and agricultural systems.
Although antimicrobials are vital to defend people, animals and plants against infections, their misuse and overuse can lead to their failure as microbes develop resistance to these life-saving treatments.
“Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat to human and animal health worldwide,” said Director of FAOLOW, Vimlendra Sharan, “It threatens food safety, food security and economic stability.”
Top experts in food and agriculture representing the US and Canadian governments, private sector, academia and NGOs met in Washington DC during World Antibiotic Awareness Week to discuss challenges and solutions for tackling AMR.
The roundtable panelists included Dr Lindsay Parish, Infectious Disease and Vaccine Advisor, USAID; Dr Andrew Maccabe, Executive Director, Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), Dr Henk Jan Ormel, Senior Veterinary Policy Advisor, FAO, and Dr Gunilla Eklund, Animal Health Officer, FAO. The event was moderated by Ms Kimberly Flowers, Director of the Global Food Security Project, CSIS.
The discussion and debate emphasized the need for action to promote the responsible use of antimicrobials across all sectors, the need for science-based policy to guide safe, sustainable and effective changes in antimicrobial use, and the potential for economic incentives to encourage behaviour change to help reduce reliance on antimicrobials, and to contain resistant pathogens.
When asked to comment after the event, Sharan emphasized that, “Farmers and food producers need more tools in their toolbox to help meet growing demands for food, to keep animals and plants healthy, and to do all of this sustainably with reduced reliance on antimicrobials.”
One of the best ways to help reduce the need for antimicrobials is to prioritize infection prevention because healthy animals and healthy plants – like healthy people – have no need for antimicrobials.
Dr Hendrik Jan Ormel, Senior Veterinary Policy Advisor, FAO, added that to help reduce reliance on antimicrobials, “Livestock producers and veterinarians can work closely together to ensure good nutrition and vaccination regimes to boost immunity, and to practice good hygiene and biosecurity on farms to help prevent infections in the first place.”
With donor support from USAID, Fleming Fund, and others, FAO is working in every region to promote the responsible use of antimicrobials throughout the food chain, and to help countries develop multi-sectoral National Action Plans on AMR.
Guided by the FAO Action Plan on AMR, FAO is also helping countries assess their national surveillance capacity to identify areas for improvement to track the spread of antimicrobial residues and resistant bacteria from land to hand and throughout the environment.
“For some time now AMR has been approached mainly from the human and animal health angles, but global efforts must also embrace the environmental sector to tackle how antibiotics and resistant bacteria are spreading through manufacturing run-off and human and animal waste,” said Dr Gunilla Eklund, FAO Senior Animal Health Officer and Antimicrobial Resistance Specialist.
“FAO is truly a One Health organization,” concluded Sharan, “And we will continue working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and other partners, towards the Global Action Plan so we can combat antimicrobial resistance in all sectors and keep our most important medicines working for when we need them most.”
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