CURRENT PLEDGES: 195941
Shared Learning 2023 – Animal Health, Agriculture & Food Supply
Organisation
Arwain DGC
Arwain DGC: helping farmers, equine owners and vets enhance their antimicrobial stewardship efforts across the large animal sectors in Wales
Project Overview
Arwain DGC builds on the pioneering work of an earlier project – Arwain Vet Cymru – which focused on improving antibiotic prescribing in cattle and sheep through a Wales-wide network of Veterinary Prescribing Champions (VPCs).
Arwain DGC extends this success to a broader schedule of activities, bringing together experienced collaborators to deliver a wide-ranging programme addressing AMR in animals and the environment.
The key players are leading Welsh agricultural stakeholders (Menter a Busnes, Welsh Lamb and Beef Producers Ltd), academic institutions (University of Bristol and Aberystwyth University) and veterinary delivery partners (Iechyd Da and Milfeddygon Gogledd Cymru).
The programme includes:
- Extending the pioneering work of the VPC Network to support vets set high standards of antibiotic prescribing;
- Developing national veterinary prescribing guidelines for cattle and sheep;
- Delivering a voluntary code of conduct for antibiotic prescribing across farm veterinary practices;
- Establishing 12 Welsh Proof of Concept farms using novel technology to explore biosecurity and precision agriculture solutions for sheep, beef and dairy farms, enabling farmers and vets to make informed decisions on animal health and welfare;
- Collating and analysing a large dataset (4500 farms) detailing antibiotic use on Welsh farms;
- Exploring AMR on Welsh dairy, beef and sheep farms through environmental sampling;
- Trialling a new biosecurity app for vets to carry out risk-based farm analysis, enabling vets to give practical advice on improvements;
- Piloting a system for vets to collect active syndromic surveillance data from farms, allowing farmers and vets to identify disease patterns and enable early action to manage or even avoid the need to use antibiotics;
- Holding Equine Health Clinics that support the equine industry to understand and reduce the need for antibiotics;
- Delivering knowledge exchange programmes and raising awareness of the need to use antibiotics responsibly across Wales.
Impact on tackling AMR
Leading antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) across the Welsh large animal sector:
Arwain DGC, an interdisciplinary collaboration between vets, industry associations and academics, develops cross-cutting AMS initiatives across the Welsh large animal sector. Since 2019, we have supported the following communities:
- Veterinary: 90% Welsh practices possess a trained Veterinary Prescribing Champion (VPC), delivering bespoke interventions and engaging practice colleagues;
- Farming: 1500 farmers have benefited by monitoring farm AMU alongside direct training from a VPC;
- Equine: 140 horse owners engaged in one-to-one advice and training.
Established data-driven animal disease and AMU monitoring:
The interdisciplinary Arwain DGC team has established preventative and surveillance initiatives, developing AMS within the large animal sector:
- AMR monitoring at farm level: Monthly sampling and analysis across a network of 54 Welsh farms and vets;
- Biosecurity App piloted (7 practices, 20 farms), enabling risk-based analysis and vet-led practical advice;
- AMU Calculator launched: 1300 farmers and their vets engaged with prescribing data management tool;
- Precision agriculture tools: Deployed on 12 proof of concept farms, fostering data collection and interpretation, informing cattle and sheep stakeholders.
Challenged and changed community AMU mindsets:
Encouraging AMS norms and values across the Wales large animal community is key to societal change. Arwain DGC has delivered effective public engagement activities, delivered across varied platforms:
- Sharable short animation introducing the project and AMR;
- Work package video summaries;
- Social media: active project communications;
- Advanced geolocation (in-person events) technology resulted in 154,473 impressions and 102,309 views, incorporating targeted adverts;
- Community press: Wales Farmer, Denbighshire Free Press; Wales 24/7 (farmer); Your Horse, (equine); VetTimes, VetRecord (veterinary);
- TV: ‘Ffermio’ (S4C) rural affairs programming;
- Radio interviews: Radio Cymru, Heart, Capital and Smooth stations;
- Case studies;
- Quarterly bulletins disseminated to 1100 stakeholders; additionally distributed via social media, events and website.
Future Development
- Veterinary Prescribing Champions (VPCs) act as Ambassadors in their veterinary practices and with their clients; they will continually promote the responsible use of antibiotics. VPCs will continue to receive targeted training and support throughout the project, encouraging development of their knowledge base and motivating them to be agents of positive change within the large animal sector.
- The Clinical Guidelines and Code of Conduct developed by the Champions will be rolled out to all farm veterinary practices across Wales.
- Data driven disease and AMU monitoring, developed through the programme through various workstreams (technology used on the Proof of Concept farms, environmental sampling and quantitation of AMR, AMU Calculator, Biosecurity App, syndromic surveillance), will continue to enable farmers and vets to identify areas of improvement and potentially help farmers become more productive and have healthier animals.
- The AMU Calculator is now a mandatory part of the Farm Assured Welsh Livestock (FAWL) Scheme, and over 1300 farms are already using the system. We expect this number to increase to 4,500 by May 2023.
- After trialling the Biosecurity App on 20 farms and in 7 practices, it will be rolled out across all Welsh farm veterinary practices, so that the biosecurity status of farms can be monitored and improved.
- Equine Health Clinics will also be held within the programme and feedback from equine owners will guide the creation of future resources, including a video on vaccinations to help prevent the spread of disease and unnecessary use of antimicrobials. This knowledge will be shared through established networks developed through the programme.
- A series of knowledge exchange events will be held to share results from the various workstreams with farmers and vets across Wales, with the aim of leading change and changing attitudes towards responsible antibiotic use.
Organisation
RUMA
The RUMA Targets Task Force and its contribution to combat AMR in the farmed livestock sector
Project Overview
RUMA was established to promote the highest standards of food safety, animal health and animal welfare in the British livestock industry. It has a current focus to deliver on the Government objective of identifying sector-specific targets for the reduction, refinement or replacement of antibiotics in animal agriculture. The story of the Targets Task Force began in 2016, when in response to the Lord O’Neil report, RUMA showed industry leadership by establishing the RUMA Targets Task Force. It set about ensuring that the AMR issue and the responsible use of antibiotics was on the agenda for each of the livestock producing sectors. It worked with sector representatives, both vets and farmers, to create and roll out sector specific antibiotic use targets. The first targets were published in Nov 2017 and ran until 2020. This first phase recognised that each of the sectors was in a different place in terms of the AMR journey, but they helped engage the various industry stakeholders and ensured a positive commitment to ensuring that where antibiotics are used it is done responsibly and with consideration to the principle of as little as possible but as much as necessary. The response across agriculture has been entirely voluntary and without the need for legislation, but where industry initiatives could be harnessed to encourage compliance, for instance farm assurance schemes, these have been used where appropriate. The RUMA targets have helped focus stakeholder support and activity across the UK livestock sectors to achieve a 52% reduction in antibiotic between 2014 and 2020. The use of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HP-CIA) in UK food producing animals has also fallen by 75% since 2014, and sales of colistin are virtually nil.
Impact on tackling AMR
– The RUMA targets have helped focus stakeholder support and activity across the UK livestock sectors to achieve a 52% reduction in antibiotic between 2014 and 2020
– The use of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HP-CIA) in UK food producing animals has also fallen by 75% since 2014, and sales of colistin are virtually nil
– Just a quarter of the UK’s antibiotics are now used to treat disease in food producing animals, despite over a billion farm animals being reared and managed in the UK every year – – Levels of antibiotic resistance found through Government monitoring and surveillance are also stabilising and falling in response to these reductions in use
Future Development
All of this activity has been realised principally through voluntary multi-sector collaboration, cross sector initiatives, codes of practice, industry body support and requirements within farm assurance schemes. The UK’s multi sector voluntary approach led by RUMA is quite unique when compared with other country’s efforts to combat AMR.
In 2019 work began on the next phase of targets by the Targets Task Force 2 (TTF2) building on the lessons learned from phase 1. The first three years of the TTF saw technical developments, the capture of data and microbiological research which has changed the understanding of antibiotic use and resistance. These findings informed new targets launched in November 2020 and which run from 2021 to 2024. This second phase looks to further enhance and strengthen the response of Agriculture to antibiotic use and demonstrates the continued commitment across agriculture to tackle the AMR challenge.
Organisation
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board
Electronic recording of antibiotic use in livestock – eMB and Medicine Hub
Project Overview
AHDB have developed eMB, the electronic medicine book for pigs, and the Medicine Hub for ruminants. These are tools to collect antibiotic usage data at farm level for UK farms. Details of each antibiotic used on farm, alongside the number of animals in the herd/ flock are collected and allow farmers to track their use over time and compare against similar farms. The systems also allow farmers to share their data with their vet, facilitating discussions around herd health and treatment plans and supply evidence of responsible antibiotic use to their supply chain.
Impact on tackling AMR
eMB now contains antibiotic use data for over 95% of UK-reared pigs and enables farmers to track and benchmark their antibiotic use.
The recently published national antibiotic use figure for pigs, based on 2021 data collected in eMB, shows an overall reduction in antibiotic use of 69% from the baseline set using data from 2015 and a 95% reduction in use of highest priority critically important antibiotics.
AHDB analyse the data from eMB to identify trends in antibiotic use and areas requiring industry input. Use is reported against industry set targets and eMB is used to track the impact of industry initiatives aimed at reducing and refining use.
Future Development
We continue to refine eMB to ensure it remains a key tool for antibiotic stewardship for the pig sector. A recent addition has been a rolling 12-month benchmark, with farms with use in the top 5% being encouraged to complete, and regularly review, an antibiotic reduction plan with their vet.
We have also developed a similar system for the ruminant sector – Medicine Hub. This was launched towards the end of 2021 and our focus currently is on encouraging uptake and engagement from the dairy, beef and sheep sectors.
Organisation
RCVS Knowledge
Farm Vet Champions supports veterinary teams to improve antimicrobial stewardship in farm practice through free CPD and SMART goal setting.
Project Overview
Farm Vet Champions (FVC) is a collaborative project to unite and empower UK farm animal veterinary practitioners to establish and embed responsible antimicrobial stewardship. FVCs supports the veterinary profession to continue to improve animal health and welfare standards and provide positive inspiration and leadership towards One Health efforts. The project is funded by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) and supported by numerous veterinary sector organisations.
The online learning platform is accessible for free for all veterinary practice team members and offers bitesize learning with users able to select the format (webinars, podcasts, articles) and topics that are most relevant to them. The FVC mantra is to Plan, Prevent and Protect our herds and flocks by predicting disease threats and reviewing animal husbandry and environmental influences in herd or flock health. FVC also provides users with a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound) goals tool which supports the sustained translation of learning into practice and can be set at an individual or team level.
FVC is hosted by RCVS Knowledge (the charity partner of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons), an impartial organisation that provides the perfect environment to collaborate with veterinary stakeholders to provide evidence-based educational materials and promote Quality Improvement in veterinary practice. FVC drives behaviour change in responsible antimicrobial use through our online learning platform and the SMART goals tool. Setting SMART goals has demonstrated accountability and improved success in achieving goals.
Within the FVC community, we have established a FVC Ambassador group of inspirational farm animal veterinary surgeons committed to championing responsible antimicrobial use and sharing ideas and knowledge. Through both education and the SMART goals tool, FVC highlights the importance of teamwork in the success of this mission. This teamwork is cultivated both within the practice setting and out in the field with farmer clients.
Impact on tackling AMR
Successes
We have attracted over 730 users to the FVC platform, with more than 450 meeting a detailed criteria, including being an RCVS registered veterinary professional driving antimicrobial stewardship forward in practice and on farms.
With an estimated 3,315 registered farm vets in the UK we have reached 14% of our target audience.
Uniting the profession
FVC has brought many veterinary organisations together, collaborating to drive the core message, ‘Plan Prevent Protect’. An example of support FVC has received across the industry is being feature in the RUMA ‘Sector in Focus campaign: Sheep’ which highlights the progress that has been made with antibiotic stewardship through case studies and industry commentary. To have a spotlight in this campaign demonstrates the achievements and growing potential scope of the FVC project.
Case Study
FVC inspired Alex Royden, to provide a case example demonstrating the effective implementation of ‘Plan Prevent Protect’. A poultry farm client was experiencing a daily mortality rate of 1% due to multi-drug resistant E. coli associated egg peritonitis. An on farm investigation revealed a series of health, welfare, and management issues to address.
Working with the farm, a plan was made to improve flock health which incorporated the use of vaccinations, vaccination auditing, improved farm biosecurity and water hygiene, parasite monitoring and control, and environmental management and enrichment. In the next flock cycle, the farm saw an >50% increase in net profit compared to the previous flock. The flock’s egg production and other production parameters remained above target for the entirety of the flock’s production cycle, demonstrating the improvement in health and welfare that had been achieved through the interventions.
Through planning and consideration around prevention techniques, the flock was protected. This is just one example of how the project can influence the industry and reduce the use of antibiotics.
Future Development
Our ambition is to make a difference in every veterinary practice, at the point of every vet-farmer conversation. Since July 2022, we have been developing a FVC Ambassador group of forward-thinking individuals to widen the reach within the veterinary community. We aim to establish an inclusive and sustainable FVC communities on local, regional, and virtual levels. These groups will share ideas, set and track SMART goals to monitor progress, and showcase best practice implementation.
We will continue to produce our “in conversation with…” podcasts which allow topical focus on more specific subjects (such as the challenges faced this lambing season with restricted oral antibiotics or the ‘Plan Prevent Protect’ application to backyard hens) to support the industry. We will continue to promote and recruit new Farm Vet Champions with a focus around students and recently qualified vets to help and support them to feel confident and empowered to make informed decisions.
