AVA Celebrates AMR Week

This week is Antimicrobial Awareness Week. Celebrated from 18 – 24 November, the theme this year is ‘Spread Awareness, Stop Resistance’.

This year’s campaign aims to encourage stakeholders, including policymakers, health care providers, and the general public to recognise that every individual can play an important role in championing antimicrobial resistance awareness.

“Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top ten global issues identified as a threat to human health,” says Dr Melanie Latter, the AVA’s National Manager, Policy and Veterinary Science. “Pressure from the human health sector to reduce antimicrobial usage in animals is one of the key sustainability risks that confronts the veterinary profession and livestock industry sectors in particular”.

Australian veterinarians are experienced in the principles of judicious antimicrobial use, and as a result, Australian animals have low levels of antibiotic resistance, compared to other countries - a status that we are focussed on maintaining. 

For many years, the AVA has been working tirelessly to contribute to the fight against AMR. In 2017, in collaboration with Animal Medicines Australia (AMA), the AVA embarked upon an ambitious project to jointly oversee the development of evidence-based prescribing guidelines for pigs, poultry, sheep, beef cattle, dairy cattle, feedlot cattle, and horses.  These prescribing guidelines will contribute greatly to securing veterinary access to antibiotics into the future, and we strongly encourage all members of the profession to use these resources and follow the recommended guidelines within.  

Read more about the AVA’s work to combat AMR, as well as the AMR Vet Collective and other veterinary collaborators in the upcoming edition of the AVA Digest (out this Saturday 20 November).

Media Release - The AVA Contributes to the Fight Against AMR