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Countries step up to tackle antimicrobial resistance
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COUNTRIES are mak- ing significant steps in tackling antimicrobial resistance, but serious gaps remain and require urgent action, according to a report released re- cently by the Food and Agriculture Organiza- tion of the United Na- tions (FAO), World Or- ganisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organiza- tion.
The report charts pro- gress in 154 countries and reveals wide discrepan- cies.
Some, including many European countries, have been working on AMR policies in human and an- imal sectors for more than four decades.
Others have only recent- ly started to take action to contain this growing threat.
Progress in developing and implementing plans is greater in high-income than low-income coun- tries but all countries have scope for improvement.
No country reports sus- tained capacity at scale in all areas.
The report looks at surveillance, education, monitoring and regulat- ing consumption and use of antimicrobials in hu- man health, animal health and production, as well as plants and the environ- ment – as recommended in the Global Action Plan published in 2015.
Promising findings in- clude 105 countries with a surveillance system in
place for reporting drug- resistant infections in hu- man health and 68 coun- tries with a system for tracking consumption of antimicrobials.
In addition, 123 coun- tries reported that they have policies to regulate the sale of antimicrobials, including the requirement of a prescription for hu- man use – a key measure to tackle overuse and mis- use of antimicrobials.
But implementation of these policies varies and unregulated medicines are still available in plac- es such as street markets, with no limits on how they are used.
Medicines are very of- ten sold over the counter and no prescription is re- quested.
This puts human and animal health at risk, po- tentially contributing to the development of anti- microbial resistance.
The report highlights areas, particularly in the animal and food sectors, where there is an urgent need for more investment and action.
For example, only 64 countries report that they follow FAO-OIE-WHO recommendations to limit the use of critically im- portant antimicrobials for growth promotion in ani- mal production.
Of these, 39 are high- income countries, with the majority in WHO’s Euro- pean region.
By contrast, only three countries from WHO’s African region and seven
countries from the WHO region of the Americas have taken this important step to reduce the emer- gence of antimicrobial re- sistance.
A total of 67 countries report at least having leg- islation in place to control all aspects of production, licensing and distribution of antimicrobials for use in animals.
But 56 either said they had no national policy or legislation regarding the quality, safety and ef- ficacy of antimicrobial products used in animal and plant health, and their distribution, sale or use, or that they were unable to report whether they have these policies in place.
There is also a substan- tial lack of action and data in the environment and plant sectors.
Although 78 countries have regulations in place to prevent environmental contamination generally, only 10 of them report having comprehensive systems to ensure regu- latory compliance for all waste management, in- cluding regulations that limit the discharge of an- timicrobial residues into the environment.
This is insufficient to protect the environment from the hazards of anti- microbial production.
WHO assistant director- general for Antimicrobial Resistance Dr Ranieri Guerra said, “This report shows growing global mo- mentum to combat anti- microbial resistance.”
“We call on govern- ments to make sustained commitments across all sectors – human and ani- mal health, plant health and the environment – otherwise we risk losing the use of these precious medicines.”
OIE deputy director gen- eral Dr Matthew Stone said, “Supporting low and middle-income countries to follow guidance of respon- sible and prudent use of antimicrobials in animals is an urgent priority.”
“Implementation of ded- icated OIE international standards, appropriate national legislation and strengthening of veteri- nary services are essential steps to help all animal health stakeholders con- tribute to controlling the threat posed by antimicro- bial resistance.”
FAO deputy director- general Maria Helena Semedo said, “FAO wel- comes that many coun- tries are taking concrete steps towards the respon- sible use of antimicrobials in agriculture.”
“However, countries need to do more to reduce the unregulated and ex- cessive use of antimicro- bials in agriculture.
“We particularly urge
countries to phase out the use of antimicrobials for growth promotion in ani- mal production – terres- trial and aquatic.”
From this survey and other sources, the tripar- tite is aware 100 countries now have national action plans for AMR in place and a further 51 countries have plans under develop- ment, but more needs to be done to ensure they are implemented.
Only 53 countries report they have a multisecto- ral working group that is fully functional, though a further 77 have estab- lished such a group.
Only 10 countries re- port the funding for all actions in the plan is iden- tified and many middle and low-income countries may need long-term de- velopment assistance to implement their plans ef- fectively and sustainably.
Positively, among the top-10 chicken, pork and cattle-producing coun- tries that responded to the AMR survey, nine out of 10 have at minimum de- veloped a national action plan.
The majority of these have plans in operation with a monitoring ar- rangement.
Coles kicks off fresh chicken price war
COLES has kicked off a new price war, re- ducing the price of its chicken breasts to the lowest in years.
The supermarket is cutting the price of its RSPCA-approved fresh deli chicken breasts from $9/kg to $8.50/kg nationwide.
Woolworths’ chicken breasts are $10/kg.
Chicken is by far the most popular meat con- sumed in Australia, out- stripping beef which, partly due to rising prices, has been steadily declining in popularity since the 1970s.
But recent factors including the price of grain have been pushing up the cost of poultry.
Coles director of fresh food Alex Freudmann said, “We know poul- try products are bought by three-quarters of
all households and that chicken breasts are our customers’ favourite cut, because they buy tens of millions of kilo- grams over the course of a year.”
“We believe dropping the price of our RSP- CA-approved chicken breasts, along with the great value Coles deliv- ers on poultry across the deli and meat case will encourage customers to stick with our chicken, when its price is going up elsewhere.
“This is yet another example of Coles work- ing closely with our suppliers to invest in value for our custom- ers and lower the cost of living for Australian families.”
Yash Gandhi, mar- keting director at Coles’ chicken supplier Steggles said, “We are
delighted to be able to work with Coles to en- sure the humble fresh chicken breast contin- ues to be a favourite on dinner tables across the country.”
In March, roast chick- en prices came under the spotlight, with a $1 price hike by both su- permarkets described as an ‘industry-changing event’ by one analyst.
Retail giant Wesfarm- ers is currently in the process of spinning off Coles into a separate listed entity, with the demerger expected to be completed by Novem- ber.
Under the arrange- ment, Wesfarmers will retain 15 percent of Coles but hold on to 50 percent of the lucrative FlyBuys scheme.
Originally published at news.com.au
www.poultrynews.com.au
National Poultry Newspaper, August 2018 – Page 15