The Indian Network for Fisheries and Animal Antimicrobial Resistance (INFAAR) held its 6^th Advisory Board Meeting online, under the co-chairpersonship of Dr J.K. Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries) and Dr B.N. Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Sciences), Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), New Delhi. Apart from the notified members of the Advisory Board, the meeting was also attended by Dr Umesh Alavadi, national focal point for AMR at USAID. The agenda of the meeting included review of the operations of INFAAR and finalization of plans for 2021-2022

Mr Tomio Shichiri, FAO Representative in India congratulated INFAAR for generating quality data on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the livestock and fisheries sectors in India. He advocated for use of this data in policy formulation and programme development for combating AMR. Mr Shichiri emphasized on the need of the One Health approach for mitigating the AMR threat. He reaffirmed FAO’s commitment in providing technical assistance towards various efforts of India in implementing its National Action Plan on AMR.

Government of India proposes to expand this network and also commence activities to estimate usage of antimicrobials in animals. FAO will support the government in imparting training to new members of INFAAR; developing protocols for estimation of antimicrobial usage; establishing a core group of national trainers on AMU; coordinating information exchange with the health sector and sustaining various ongoing activities of INFAAR.