The plan includes restrictions on the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry production, most of them already in place.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau recently unveiled the agreement called the Pan-Canadian Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance.
The World Organization for Animal Health almost simultaneously announced there has been a 13 per cent decline in the amount of antimicrobials used in animals from 2017 through 2019.
The Canadian action plan has a lot to say about livestock and poultry, such as:
In 2020, 82 per cent of all Medically Important Antimicrobials (AMIs) as sold by volume in Canada were intended for use in food producing animals and horses.
Less than one per cent of antimicrobials were sold for use in plants/crops and companion animals (that is, cats and dogs), with the remaining 17 per cent sold or purchased for human use.
It is important to note that there are substantially more animals than people in Canada. Taking populations and estimated weights into account, approximately 1.8 times more MIAs were intended for use in production animals (food animals plus horses) than in people.
The types and dosing of MIAs used in most production animals are often different from those used in humans, making it challenging to understand the comparison of sales data based solely on volume.
Overall sales of MIAs across production animals in Canada decreased by seven per cent (by kg) from 2018 to 2021, with variations in sales trends by animal species (for example, farmed livestock,
aquaculture and horses).
These trends coincided with the implementation of veterinary drug regulatory changes and policy interventions in 2017 to 2018, which included making MIAs available by prescription only and removing growth promotion claims from all MIAs.
Sentinel farm surveillance of AMU on broiler chicken, grower-finisher pig and turkey farms also indicated a decrease in AMU from 2016 to 2020.
More antimicrobials were reported to be used for disease prevention purposes (primarily for prevention of enteric diseases) than for disease treatment (respiratory, enteric, septicemia or lameness) in 2020, which is similar to previous years.
The decreasing trend in AMU was accompanied by a decrease in AMR in bacteria from samples from the same sentinel farms, using resistance to three or more classes of antimicrobials for Escherichia coli as the AMR indicator.
Advancements have been made to keep animals healthy and reduce the use of MIAs through, for example, federal initiatives to improve access to antimicrobial alternatives.
There have also been sector-specific initiatives to eliminate the preventive use of third generation cephalosporins (and other antimicrobial classes in some cases).
Decisions related to the access and use of antimicrobials in the animal sector are complex, species-specific, and influenced by numerous factors including animal husbandry practices, animal disease conditions and market supply and demand.
AMR poses a challenge to sustaining the important domestic and global contributions of the agriculture industry.
From 2012 to 2050, gross global agricultural output is estimated to grow between 40 and 54 per cent to meet food demand, depending on the scenario as analyzed by the FAO.
The need for safe and effective antimicrobials in agriculture is clear, and in Canada the quantity of MIAs sold for use in production animals (in mg/population correction unit (PCU) is higher than the median reported by other countries using similar metrics, though there are important differences across antimicrobial classes sold and production practices.
The agriculture sector will be a critical partner in helping balance the need to preserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials for human and animal health with the need for safe and affordable food products, the agreement said.
