Source: MEATINGPLACE, 5/25/16

The Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has recommended a strategy to fight antimicrobial resistance that aims to protect the effectiveness of antibiotics used in veterinary medicine and the molecules used in human medicine.

The organization asked its member nations to adopt the plan, which assists countries in preparing a legal framework to manage the problem and builds on international standards it developed and revised in 2015.

The OIE, which also helped develop the World Health Organization’s action plan against antimicrobial resistance, said the international initiatives can only work if they are supported at the national level in individual countries. But underfunded veterinary services, an absence of legislation to carry out mandates and the existence of parallel markets outside the control of health authorities remain consistent barriers.

The new plan will enable OIE to assist countries in carrying out the following actions:
• regulate the manufacture, circulation and use of antimicrobials in animals, according to international standards;
• train animal health professionals; 
• communicate to raise awareness among stakeholders;
• ensure veterinary supervision of antimicrobial use in animal health;
• monitor antimicrobial use and the development of resistance.

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