One Health antimicrobial resistance modelling: from science to policy.

Area of Science:

• One Health
• Epidemiology
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Antimicrobial drugs are crucial for human and veterinary medicine.
• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to global health, animal welfare, and ecosystems.
• Effective policy guidance for AMR requires understanding its development, spread, and impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore challenges and opportunities for modelling AMR across One Health settings.
• To identify key knowledge gaps and complexities in AMR research.
• To inform policy development through a pragmatic approach to AMR modelling.

Main Methods:

• Convened an international workshop on AMR modelling.
• Discussed data quality, availability, and knowledge gaps.
• Reviewed the status of AMR modelling and its hierarchy of evidence.

Main Results:

• Identified disparities in data quality and availability as a major challenge.
• Highlighted knowledge gaps, particularly the link between antimicrobial use (AMU) and AMR.
• Recognized the heterogeneity of AMR across different settings and organisms complicates generalizability.
• Emphasized the need for synoptic AMR metrics for policymaking.

Conclusions:

• Modelling AMR is essential but faces significant hurdles, including data limitations and inherent complexity.
• Transdisciplinary collaboration and pragmatic approaches are vital for developing effective AMR policies.
• Learnings from modelling other environmental challenges can inform future AMR policy strategies.