The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has announced its commitment to assess the competence of veterinary graduates in the field of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial stewardship in selected countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia. This initiative is part of the project “Reducing the advance of antimicrobial resistance in food and agriculture,” which aims to combat the proliferation of drug-resistant microorganisms.

Since its inception in 2017, and in collaboration with partner countries, the FAO project supports the development and implementation of surveillance systems and national action plans to combat antimicrobial resistance in five selected countries.  As part of these efforts, FAO will evaluate the curricula on AMR education of veterinary institutions in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

The first assessment took place in late June 2023 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the K.I. Skryabin Kyrgyz National Agrarian University. It involved professors who teach theoretical and clinical subjects related to various aspects of AMR as well as recent veterinary graduates (including some official veterinarians), and final-year veterinary students, who actively evaluated their curriculum using an assessment methodology designed at The Ohio State University.