Our impact

The AMR Force has inspired and enacted change in antimicrobial use on farms and in veterinary prescribing practice through intensive collaboration and dialogue with: suppliers, retailers, veterinarians, software development companies, livestock farmers and the livestock industry.

guardian-awards

Winners, 2018 Antibiotic Guardian Awards – Food and Agriculture 

Specifically the AMR Force has made the following impacts:

Change in prescribing practice of veterinarians

  • Publishing a paper leading to a joint call by the University of Bristol, RUMA, BVA and BCVA for veterinarians to work with their farmers to remove expired and inappropriate medicines from farms
  • Leading the way by achieving dramatic changes in prescribing practice, reducing use of critically important AMs by over 80% to virtually zero in the Langford Farm Animal Practice, part of Langford Vets (LV) client farms over the last six years
  • Training veterinarians on responsible use through BCVA CPD events
  • Producing responsible AM use posters and guidance through the BVA, BCVA and LVS

 Change in husbandry practices and medicine use of farmers

  • Engaging dairy farmers in antimicrobial stewardship initiatives through participatory action research
  • Dairy farmers engaged in AM policy development and changing their AM use as a result of their participation
  • Systems developed and data collected by farmers on AM use for benchmarking and development of Key Performance Indicators for more responsible use of AMs
  • Increased attention for AM use and AMR in the livestock sector in policy and research
  • Asked to contribute to the O’Neill Report on AMR as well as advise Defra, VMD, ESRC and various other policy-making bodies about ongoing AMR research
  • Leadership on the statement developed for British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) and supported by BVA about AM use in animals and published internationally