Antimicrobial resistance: harmonisation of national antimicrobial resistance monitoring and surveillance programmes in animals and in animal-derived food

A guideline on the harmonisation of national antimicrobial resistance monit oring and surveillance programmes in animals and animal-derived foods has b een developed by the Ad hoc Group of experts on antimicrobial resistance of the Office International des Epizooties. The objective of the guideline is to allow the generation of comparable data from various national surveilla nce and monitoring systems in order to compare the situations in different regions or countries and to consolidate results at the national, regional a nd international level. Definitions of surveillance and monitoring are prov ided. National systems should be able to detect the emergence of resistance , and to determine the prevalence of resistant bacteria. The resulting data should be used in the assessment of risks to public health and should cont ribute to the establishment of a risk management policy. Specific factors i dentified for harmonisation include the animal species, food commodities, s ampling plans, bacterial species, antimicrobials to be tested, laboratory m ethods, data reporting, database structure and the structure of reports.