Antimicrobial Resistance

About AMR

What is it?
What is it?
FAO's role
FAO's role
Who we are
Who we are
Key sectors
Key sectors

Antimicrobial drugs are key in the treatment of diseases, and their use is essential to protect both human and animal health. However, antimicrobials misuse in the livestock sector, aquaculture and crop production is a major concern as a risk for emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistant micro-organisms.

Key facts

In 2019, 5 million human deaths were associated by bacterial antimicrobial resistance worldwide, including 1.3 million human deaths attributable to bacterial AMR (The Lancet)

27 different antimicrobial classes used in animals

Total global animal health market in 2011 was equivalent to USD 22 billion (OECD)

118 countries reported quantitative data on antimicrobial use in animals between 2015 and 2017, an increase from 89 reporting in 2015

Publications

Why should policymakers act on antimicrobial resistance in agrifood systems?

This fact sheet provides background information on the link between agrifood systems and AMR...

Africa Regional Strategy on Antimicrobial Resistance Communications and Advocacy

The Africa Regional Strategy on Antimicrobial Resistance Communications and Advocacy was developed to serve as a guide for African countries to improve awareness of AMR and its consequences in Africa, to promote careful use of [...]

Tackling antimicrobial use and resistance in food-producing animals

Lessons learned in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This publication describes the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s multisectoral voluntary approach to antibiotic stewardship in food-producing animals, developed as a [...]

News

The Quadripartite announces the rebranding of the global annual awareness campaign on antimicrobial resistance

World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) will now be World AMR Awareness Week. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a major global threat across human, animal, plant, food, and environmental sectors. In 2019, it was estimated that almost 5 [...]

ACT project in Nepal / Training on implementation of Codex antimicrobial resistance standards

FAO Nepal in collaboration with the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development conducted a training of trainers on the implementation of Codex standards to contain and reduce foodborne [...]

Apply to be a member of the Quadripartite Working Group on Youth Engagement for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): Call for expressions of interest

The Quadripartite agencies – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE) [...]

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