MAVIS Hub Edition 126

The priority of the Policy and Comms team continues to be the implementation of animal health-specific aspects of the cross-government UK AMR National Action Plan (2019-2024). Additionally, the UK government have begun the process of developing the next 5-Year AMR National Action Plan, which will run from 2024-2029.

A public Call for Evidence concluded in January 2023. Following this a number of workshops have been conducted to gather evidence and priorities from internal government stakeholders across the four nations of the UK. A workshop focussed on animals, food, and the environment was delivered by the VMD in February 2023.

Muscat manifesto

Following the attendance of members of the VMD at the third Ministerial meeting on AMR in Oman in November the UK has officially endorsed the Muscat Manifesto, which set targets on use of antibiotics in humans and animals and outlines commitments to develop and implement National Actions plans and strengthen AMR and AMU surveillance.

The UK will be delivering animal-based targets in line with FAO’s RENOFARM initiative, which the Manifesto targets are derived from.

Westminster Hall debate

A Westminster Hall debate entitled “Use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals and antimicrobial resistance” was held on the 18 January 2023, tabled by Virendra Sharma MP.

The debate focussed on anti-intensive farming and the development of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations. Minister Mark Spencer responded to the debate, supported by Dr Kitty Healey from the VMD.

3.2 Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination (DARC) group

The Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination (DARC) group held a meeting on 9 March 2023. The meeting included an update on recent findings from across the UK in AMR in bacteria of importance to animal and public health.

An overview of the Special Import Certificates criteria and an update on the environmental AMR surveillance being conducted through the PATH-SAFE programme was provided.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place on 15 June 2023 . Minutes from previous meetings are available on GOV.UK.

3.3 FAO AMR Reference Centres Congress, 16-17 March 2023, APHA Weybridge site

The first congress of FAO AMR Reference Centres was co-hosted with FAO by the agencies of the UK FAO Reference Centre for AMR. Sessions were held at the APHA Weybridge site and representatives from all nine FAO designated AMR Reference Centres attended (one virtually attended).

Activities across the two days centred around sharing information of the activities and areas of expertise across the different Reference centre designations and identifying areas of collaboration.

Current and future FAO initiatives including RENOFARM, InFARM, Multi-stakeholder Partnership Platform and the FAO AMR Laboratory Community of Practice were presented and how Reference Centres can contribute.