Public health and policy

Antimicrobial agent usage data are essential for focusing efforts to reduce misuse and overuse of antimicrobial agents in food producing animals because these practices may select for resistance in bacteria of animals. Transfer of resistant bacteria from animals to humans can lead to human infection caused by resistant pathogens. Resistant infections can lead to treatment failures, resulting in prolonged or more severe illness. Multiple World Health Organization (WHO) reports have concluded that both antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial usage should be monitored on the national level. The system for collecting antimicrobial usage data should be clear and transparent to facilitate trend analysis and comparison within and among countries. Therapeutic, prophylactic and growth promotion use should be recorded, along with route of administration and animal species and/or production class treated. The usage data should be compared to resistance data, and the comparison should be made available in a timely manner. In the United States, surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in foodborne bacteria is performed by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) for enteric bacteria, however, the United States still lacks a mechanism for collecting antimicrobial usage data. Combined with antimicrobial resistance information from NARMS, antimicrobial usage data will help to direct education efforts and policy decisions, minimizing the risk that people will develop antimicrobial resistant infections as a result of eating food of animal origin. Ultimately mitigation strategies guided by usage data will be more effective in maintaining antimicrobial drugs for appropriate veterinary use and in protecting human health.