Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before this committee. I am the industry co-chair of the National Farmed Animal Health and Welfare Council.
The council was formed in 2010 out of an action item from the strategy by the same name that was developed in 2009. Subsequently it was designated as a subcommittee of the FPT Regulatory ADMs of Agriculture Committee.
The council is made up of three primary partner groups from different departments within the federal government, representatives from the provincial governments, and non-government organizations such as CVMA and a number of commodity groups, as well as academic institutions.
The council considers issues in a One Health context. In the agriculture community, that also includes the economic health of our constituents, but its primary focus, of course, is public health, animal health, and environmental health. The council supports a collaborative approach to issues of importance to animal agriculture, recognizing the roles and authorities of the respective organizations; the federal, provincial, and territorial governments; and the industry itself.
We provide advice to our constituents, primarily reporting through the FPT regulatory ADMs and identifying where we can organizations or individuals that could perhaps lead in some of the actions we recommend.
On antimicrobial resistance specifically, the council has completed three reports between 2012 and 2016. This reflects, we believe, the council's recognition that AMR is a global and urgent issue.
The first report was “Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Initiatives in Humans and Animals in Canada”. It was published in 2012, and it's a collection and categorization of antimicrobial resistance initiatives in Canada in both human and animal medicine.
The second study was “Antimicrobial Use and Antimicrobial Resistance—Strategies for Animal Agriculture”, in 2014. It provided eight recommendations, many of which have been achieved, including a meeting of both human medicine and animal agriculture, which was hosted by the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2015.
Our last and most recent publication was “Antimicrobial Stewardship in Food Animals in Canada”, in 2016. That report focuses primarily on stewardship, which in animal agriculture includes infection prevention and control. It also recognizes the importance of surveillance and innovation in successful AMR intervention.
How do we define antimicrobial stewardship? There are a number of definitions, but the one we've captured in our documents is that antimicrobial stewardship is an active, dynamic process of continuous improvement. It involves coordinated interventions designed to promote, improve, monitor, and evaluate the judicious use of antimicrobials so as to preserve their future effectiveness and promote and protect human and animal health. It includes a 5R approach of responsibility, reduction, refinement, replacement, and review.
The concept and practice of antimicrobial stewardship continues to evolve in human and veterinary medicine. It is generally accepted that it will be the cumulative impact of numerous interventions or actions that will have a positive impact on reducing antimicrobial resistance.
Antimicrobials are important in animal agriculture. Modern medicine for both humans and animals is based on the availability of effective antimicrobials. The continuing efficacy of antimicrobials is important in animal agriculture, both in disease control and related animal welfare considerations.
There is growing concern about resistance of bacteria to antimicrobials, and the impact of such resistance to human and animal health. This is of particular concern in the case of those antimicrobials, as has already been outlined, that are important in human medicine.
We strongly believe the cornerstone of our stewardship efforts is that they should be used judiciously and prudently. Animal agriculture provides safe food for Canadians, as well as exporting both live animals and animal products around the world. Animal agriculture creates employment in rural communities and supports a number of sectors.
Throughout its history, Canadian animal agriculture has demonstrated that it can and will progressively adapt and change practices with changing knowledge and technology. We respond actively to societal imperatives. Canada has a strong network of veterinary practitioners—as was recently evaluated by the OIE, the global organization for animal health—with a profound knowledge of animal agriculture.
We believe that stewardship is a shared responsibility in national producer organizations. Sustainability and on-farm food safety programs are the cornerstone of delivering the message and the wherewithal to producers on how to implement judicious and prudent use of antimicrobials.
Producers, individually, can do a number of things in reducing the use and the need for antimicrobials, namely biosecurity, genetic selection for disease resistance, nutrition, housing, various management practices, and some of the alternatives that my colleague mentioned earlier.
For veterinarians, we've heard from the CVMA, as well as their respective provincial licensing bodies. They have a very significant role in the oversight of the use of antimicrobials.
As we move forward, there are other leadership opportunities that we recognize and that we will undertake to review. There's opportunity for all stakeholders to demonstrate their leadership in their various sectors. There are a great many activities on many fronts. It's framed by the pan-Canadian framework for antimicrobial use and resistance, and the action plan is currently under development. The council is demonstrating, through its own leadership, and ensuring that antimicrobial resistance is the centre stage at our annual forum—and has been since 2013. We did actively participate in the development of the pan-Canadian framework. We take any opportunity that we can.
Communication, as was mentioned, is going to be key—communication to build awareness and some of the extension and education and training for producers, veterinarians, and others in this sector—to the stewardship of antimicrobials.
Partnership is a big part of that, which is primarily led by the Public Health Agency, in developing that pan-Canadian action plan.
Research and innovation has been mentioned and alternatives to antimicrobials and risk mitigation tools are going to be needed. Reducing the need for antimicrobials in an investigation of those alternative production systems will be important. Research is a cornerstone of that.
Surveillance was mentioned, and we, too, support the enhancement of surveillance on the use and the resistance of antimicrobials.
There's an organization called the Canadian Global Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank, which has a tool that veterinarians can access, and we believe that it can play a key role in providing advice beyond the current mandate that it has right now.
Finally, there is assessing regulatory needs required to create a change in the production environment and other activities that we have partnered with through the CAHPRAC organization that Dr. Landals mentioned.
In conclusion, I'd like to say that the council has taken this responsibility very seriously, and our ultimate objective is to ensure that antimicrobials that are available for the treatment of disease in both animals and humans remain effective.
Thank you.