Health committee  I would have to concur with that. At Health Canada it's on track that by December 2018, I think, all over-the-counter antibiotics will stop being used in Canada. The growth promoters are the biggest part of that. We have a requirement then for veterinary prescriptions.

Health committee  We've heard a bit about some of that in the poultry industry. In my opinion, that's the next big issue to confront. It has to be emphasized that in the WHO guidelines there's an emphasis placed on the classification of drugs in these various categories. The higher the level of re

Health committee  I'll start, and then the other guys can chip in. I was on the committee that developed those guidelines, so I'm really familiar with them. One thing I will say is that when Mr. Leech gave his presentation and he mentioned the things the poultry industry is doing, I was ticking o

Health committee  I am a history nut, and the history of antibiotic resistance and its control on the animal side is really fascinating. It would probably be a topic for a book someday. It's a situation where there have been periodic crises that have gotten the public's attention, gripped the imag

Health committee  I think it needs to be said that without a pharmaceutical industry, we would be nowhere in terms of having antibiotics. They're a critically important part of that. We need to have a supply of antibiotics to do the good things that they do. Having said that, I think the pharmaceu

Health committee  In a quick answer to your first point about the reduction in the beneficial effect to growth and feed efficiency with growth promoters, it's pretty well documented now that there has been a reduction from about 5% to 10% down to about 2%. We don't really know for sure why that

Health committee  Maybe I can add to that. Part of your question is how we got to the place we are now, where there seems to be so much use. Part of the reason was that antibiotics were such effective agents for controlling, preventing, and treating diseases that they were widely adopted in anim

Health committee  To give you an idea, the latest version of the “Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System Report 2016” indicated that in Canada, medically important antimicrobials are used in animals to the extent of 160 milligrams per kilogram. That's the average across the country.

Health committee  It's well-known that antibiotic use is higher in conditions of intensive agriculture. However, it's also well-known that there are many excellent managers who are able to raise animals in confined conditions and intense conditions with minimal use of antibiotics through good husb

Health committee  I don't teach vet students; I haven't for about 10 years. My teaching responsibilities are mainly in veterinary public health aspects, food safety, and environmental health. However, I know as a student a long time ago that we got quite a bit of training on antimicrobial resistan

Health committee  I think that question is probably better placed to medical experts when they're here, if they haven't been here yet and are coming. I speak from the veterinary side on the animal dimensions of the public health problem, so all I can do is quote figures that have been developed in

Health committee  I'm not aware of any data that indicates that there is a greater problem from the animal sector in other countries than there is in Canada, but I can understand where the impression would come from, because we've had some events and cases in which there has been global spread. Th

Health committee  It's my impression that it's your job to decide what's best for Canadians and to set the major direction and provide that leadership. A tangible way of doing that is, as I said, by setting those targets, because doing that focuses the attention of everyone on how we're going to g

Health committee  As I said in my opening remarks, the scientific evidence suggests the major contributions to antimicrobial resistance problems in people, which arise from animals and animal uses of these drugs, are the food-borne enteric bacteria. They're common food-borne pathogens like salmone

Health committee  Good afternoon, and thank you for the invitation to appear before you to discuss antimicrobial resistance. I'm a veterinarian by training, and an academic by occupation. I've worked on AMR for many years as a researcher and consultant with several public health organizations in