Antimicrobial Use Data Collection in the U.S. Poultry Production System

Project Summary/AbstractAntimicrobial use (AMU) is the primary selective force behind the emergence of resistant bacteria. Improvingantimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in human and animal health is essential for maintaining the effectiveness ofavailable antimicrobials and is an essential component of efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance. Most AMUdata that are being collected globally are in the form of antimicrobial sales volumes; most countries do notcurrently have systems in place to collect nationally representative AMU datasets on-farm. Without anyknowledge of the incidence of disease in specific herds or flocks nor the intended use of the antimicrobialsincluded in the sales data it is not clear how national antimicrobial sales data alone are useful in assisting withAMS activities. Systems must be developed for collecting on-farm AMU data. These data should include theprincipal indications for use and details about administration (dose route duration age of animals) of specificantimicrobial compounds and ideally would also collect information on therapeutic outcomes. This proposedproject will focus on expanding an ongoing nationally representative and sustainable system for collecting on-farm quantitative AMU data in the broiler chicken turkey and table egg industries of the U.S. This programfunctions as a public-private partnership and currently collects data from approximately 85% of annual broilerproduction 70% of annual turkey production and 50% of table egg production in the U.S. This proposedproject will expand the current effort but also includes several additional objectives. First a multi-disciplinaryExpert Working Group will continue to evaluate metrics for analyzing reporting and summarizing the data. Thisworking group will also explore several key data gaps that we have identified during our 10-year collection ofU.S. poultry data. These data gaps include 1) methods for estimating the background incidence of keybacterial diseases in the U.S. poultry industry 2) methods for evaluating health and production outcomesfollowing antimicrobial therapy in poultry 3) approaches for standardizing the disease definitions recorded byveterinarians and 4) methods for linking antimicrobial prescriptions given to the same flock so that theregimens can be linked. This project addresses all of the key characteristics as identified by FDA-CVM in theRFA that are needed in a sustainable and representative system for collecting on-farm antimicrobial use data.The AMU data collection system for the poultry industry of the U.S. which already functions as a public-privatepartnership and can serve as a model for other food animal sectors.