Successful symposium on AMR in Livestock Production in a One Health Context

The OECD-CRP Symposium on AMR in Livestock Production in a One Health Context was held in Edinburgh on 22-24 May 2023.

The magnitude and gravity of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) health crisis has been stressed by national and international commentators and it is clear that there is an imbalance between the attention given to management of antimicrobial use (AMU) and AMR in clinical settings compared to that in livestock production.  

Since the latter could amount to more than half the global use of antimicrobials, it is important to understand the drivers of their use and the likely health consequences, both direct and indirect. 

This symposium, sponsored by the OECD's Co-operative Research Programme, focused on specific gaps in our understanding of AMU in livestock systems and the consequences for AMR, approaching the problem from a One Health perspective.  

Objectives

  1. to review what we do/do not know about AMU across terrestrial livestock and aquaculture, as well as the effects on AMR;
  2. to identify the key barriers (technical, economic, behavioural, political) to interventions to modify AMU;
  3. to review the modelling methods that allow the approximation of AMU and AMR and impacts of different interventions;
  4. to set this knowledge in the broader One Health agenda of science policy communication and curriculum development;
  5. to consider priority policy interventions and strategies.

Successful models of One Health working

The event was organised by Prof Dominic Moran and Carys Redman-White in the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Edinburgh. 

It was structured as a 3-day meeting combining formal presentations (keynotes and focused sessions) covering the topics above and exploring successful models of One Health working for policy.  This element involved input of experience from University of Edinburgh projects including the Edinburgh AMR Forum, EPIC, and SEBI-L. 

The ultimate aim is to develop a network for ongoing collaborative projects and expertise to deliver impact in terms of advice to relevant international bodies (WOAH, FAO and WHO) and national governments seeking guidance for implementation of their AMR action plans (NAPs).

 

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Group of attendees at the OECD-CRP AMR in Livestock PRoduction meeting
Attendees at the meeting gathered outside the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute on Tuesday afternoon.

Programme

Note:  Where available, recorded talks can be accessed via the link to speakers name.

Slides from the speakers are available at the link below.

OECD-CRP AMR in Livestock Production in a One Health Context presentations

Monday 22 May, Roslin Institute

Welcome and introduction

Geoff Simm, University of Edinburgh

Lieve Herman, OECD CRP 

Opening plenary

Julie Fitzpatrick, Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for Scotland

Keynote

Frank Møller Aarestrup, Danish Technical University — Novel methods to measure the occurrence and transmission  of AMR systems

Modeling of AMR Systems

Matt Jones, University of Exeter — Statistical modelling of the AMU-AMR relationship in beef cattle

Carys Redman-White, University of Edinburgh—Systems modelling approaches to guide AMR interventions of AMR

Edinburgh AMR Forum - One Health working

Till Bachmann, University of Edinburgh — Showcase of work from the Edinburgh AMR Forum - including Deborah Hoyle (UoE), Shailesh Shrestha (SRUC), Nuno Silva (Moredun Research Institute)

Economics and AMR

Sara Babo Martins, University of Liverpool—Global Burden of Animal Disease programme: assessing the socio-economic burden of AMR in livestock

Alex Morgan, ETH, Zurich —Can taxation of veterinary antibiotics reduce antimicrobial resistance?

Tuesday 23 May, Edinburgh Climate Change Institute

Keynote

Gwen Knight, LSHTM —Modelling for evidence-based interventions against antibiotic resistance

AMR and One Health

Dominic Moran, University of Edinburgh—Transdisciplinary objectives in AMR research

Guillaume Lhermie, University of Calgary—Strategic interactions between stakeholders in OH-AMR

Mathematical modelling of the AMU-AMR relationship

Bram Van Bunnik, University of Edinburgh—Differential equations to model the impact of livestock AMU

João Gabriel Oliveira Marques, University of Edinburgh— Stochasticity in AMR modelling

ICARS

Rodolphe Mader — overview of work in ICARS

Wednesday 24 May, Edinburgh Climate Change Institute

The science-policy interface

Fernando Mardones, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile — Managing AMU in aquaculture: policy and practice

Cristina Lanzas, University of North Carolina — Epidemiological modelling in the livestock sector

Adrian Muwonge, University of Edinburgh — Fleming Fund research on AMR in Uganda

EPIC: the Scottish Government’s centre of expertise on animal health

Global livestock data and AMR inference

Featuring work by SEBI-L Supporting Evidence-Based Interventions for Livestock: a B&M Gates-funded initiative and EDINA, University of Edinburgh

Related links

Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems

Roslin Institute

Edinburgh AMR Forum

Edinburgh Climate Change Institute

EPIC – Scotland's Centre of Expertise of Animal Disease Outbreaks

Supporting Evidence Based Interventions for Livestock (SEBI-L)

Edina

Professor Dominic Moran