MAVIS Hub Edition 123

Our priorities for this year continue to be the implementation of veterinary medicine aspects of the cross-government UK AMR National Action Plan (2019-2024) and publication of a Case Study report written by the VMD and stakeholders detailing the UK’s reduction in sales and use of antibiotics for food-producing animals. The report will be published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and highlight the value of the multi-sectoral voluntary collaborative approach adopted in the UK.
A Ministerial meeting on AMR, convened by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, was held on 25 May. Ministers from across the UK and devolved governments, alongside expert advisors, discussed issues surrounding the risk of AMR, innovation, trade policy and international collaboration. Minister Churchill attended on behalf of Defra and the VMD and commended the progress of the livestock sector in reducing their antibiotic usage over the past 8 years.
The VMD AMR Policy team held two high-level AMR roundtables with One Health stakeholders on behalf of the FAO on 27 April, convened by Dame Sally Davies, the UK Government’s Special Envoy on AMR and Steve Wearne, Chair of Codex Alimentarius Commission. High profile representatives from across government, industry and academia attended these workshops to capture insights which may be used by the FAO in the development the Quadripartite’s AMR Partnership Platform.
VMD supported the British Poultry Council’s and RUMA’s BPC’s recent twitter campaign on the UK’s poultry sector’s success in antibiotic stewardship.

Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Co-ordination (DARC) group

The Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination (DARC) group held a meeting on 8 June to discuss the recent findings in antibiotic resistance (AMR) in bacteria of importance to animal and public health. The meeting included a discussion on the recent consultation on the government’s Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan. The VMD provided a readout on two AMR roundtables hosted by the VMD on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for the Quadripartite. A guest speaker from the Scottish Reference Laboratory discussed the results of a study which investigated antimicrobial susceptibility testing and population structure of Scottish Staphylococcus pseudintermedius.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place in September 2022.

Minutes from previous meetings

UK FAO Reference Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

As a Reference Centre agency, the VMD has continued to provide high quality scientific and policy expertise to support our country partners and global community to tackle antimicrobial resistance. This includes the roll out of our e-learning course, ‘Residues of Veterinary Medicines in Foods of Animal Origin’ with several country partners to increase technical capacity in the area of residues surveillance.

Our e-learning course “Understanding AMR in food and agriculture”, created jointly with the FAO was published in April as an open access resource to increase awareness and engagement on AMR amongst stakeholders.

The UK FAO Reference Centre for AMR is collaborating with WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on AMR and Healthcare Associated Infections (UKHSA) and the OIE Collaborating Centre for AMR to form a One Health Cooperative to champion a One Health approach to tackling AMR and establishing a joined up approach.

Question 4

Inspections

Accepted Answer

During the period from 01/04/22 to 30/06/22 the Distribution and Supply Chain Inspection Section carried out a total of 187 inspections of retail and feed business premises to assess their compliance with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013. We have restarted on-site inspections, however, due to the ongoing pandemic we are still carrying out some remote assessments where we believe they are appropriate

Retail Premises

We inspected 149 retail premises (veterinary practice premises and SQP retailers) and the compliance ratings for these inspections were as follows (5 being the highest, 1 being the lowest):

Rating	No. of premises	Percentage
5	68	46%
4	59	40%
3	19	12%
2	1	0.7%
1	2	1.3%

The most common deficiencies that required corrective action, which were all observed in veterinary practice premises, were:

Broach dates exceeded or not recorded
Controlled Drug (CD) Registers not maintained as required
Controlled Drug/Restricted products – incorrect details recorded at usage/supply

The requirements for retailers are published on GOV.UK.

Feed Business Operator premises

We inspected 38 Feed Business Operator (FeBO) premises and the compliance ratings for these inspections were as follows (5 being the highest, 1 being the lowest):

Rating	No. of premises	Percentage
5	16	42%
4	17	45%
3	4	11%
2	0	0%
1	1	2%

The most common deficiencies that required corrective action were:

Homogeneity test issues
HACCP plan not documented/implemented/maintained as required
Stability test issues

The requirements for Feed Business Operator (FeBO) premises are published on GOV.UK.

Question 5

Summary for year ended 31 March 2022

Accepted Answer

During the period from 01/04/21 to 31/03/22 the Distribution and Supply Chain Inspection Section carried out a total of 1,073 inspections of retail and feed business premises to assess their compliance with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.

Retail Premises

We inspected 858 retail premises (veterinary practice premises and SQP retailers) and the compliance ratings for these inspections were as follows (5 being the highest, 1 being the lowest):

Rating	No. of premises	Percentage
5	68	46%
4	59	40%
3	19	12%
2	1	0.7%
1	2	1.3%

The most common deficiencies that required corrective action, which were all observed in veterinary practice premises, were:

Broach dates exceeded or not recorded
Controlled Drug (CD) Registers not maintained as required
Controlled Drug/Restricted products – incorrect details recorded at usage/supply
Cascade labels not meeting the regulatory requirements

The requirements for retailers are published on GOV.UK.

Feed Business Operator premises

We inspected 215 Feed Business Operator (FeBO) premises and the compliance ratings for these inspections were as follows (5 being the highest, 1 being the lowest):