3.3 Who is responsible for antimicrobial stewardship?

Everyone is responsible for AMS – from doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, regulators and farmers down to our own choices to use antimicrobials for ourselves or families.

Watch this short YouTube video [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] to learn about responsibilities, based on the ‘five only’ rules to handling microbials with care.

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The use of antimicrobials in animals is a shared responsibility between the veterinarian and the farmer or farmworkers. In this relationship, the veterinarian takes responsibility for deciding on the most appropriate antimicrobial. The farmer is responsible for following the veterinarian’s directions and implementing good animal care practices (husbandry, hygiene, biosecurity). Together, these approaches safeguard the health and welfare of animals and help to minimise the impact of AMR in animal populations.

However, this is not the situation in all countries. As we discussed earlier, there are few veterinarians in many LMICs, and farmers access antimicrobials from multiple non-veterinary sources. Non-veterinary suppliers of antimicrobials have just as much responsibility for AMS as everyone else.

Activity 7: Applied AMS – who is responsible?

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Responsibilities for AMS differ if you are a veterinarian prescribing antimicrobials, a pharmacist selling antimicrobials or a policymaker regulating antimicrobials use in food animals. Take some time to think about your responsibilities and how you can make a positive contribution to AMS in animals. Write down your thoughts.

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Discussion

Did you include some of the following points when thinking about your responsibilities towards AMS?

  • Keep up to date with new information and knowledge of various treatments options for diseases through ongoing education and training.
  • Provide leadership or working as a team to develop an AMS programme for your place of employment.
  • Share knowledge/educate farmers, agrovet sellers, co-workers, and others about AMR and AMS to help change behaviours when using antimicrobials. This includes only using antimicrobials when there is a need to use them, implementing good husbandry and farm biosecurity, getting antimicrobials from authorised sources, etc.
  • Contribute to the development and evaluation of prescribing guidelines to ensure they are evidence-based.
  • Promote prescribing guidelines to veterinarians and others who may use them.
  • Where possible, encourage the use of laboratory testing to diagnose diseases.
  • Only use antimicrobials when there is a need to use them.

3.2 Why does antimicrobial stewardship matter?

3.4 Factors influencing decisions to give antimicrobials animals