On the 15th and 16th of October, the European Commission organized an online conference on its Farm to Fork strategy. This strategy lays out the pathways towards fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system as part of the European Green Deal.

One of the challenges in the Farm to Fork strategy to achieve the healthy food system is the EU wide reduction by 50% in sales of antimicrobials to combat antimicrobial resistance.

We from DISARM were proud to be asked to share our insight into how new knowledge and innovation solutions for sustainable farming will help to achieve the goals that have been set.

We believe that we must be optimistic about reaching the goals since pioneering livestock farmers in different sectors and across Europe are already showing that reducing antibiotic use to minimal levels is possible. Still, we believe the further reduction will be depending on excellent research, innovation and courage of the people in practice that need to make the change happening in their daily practice.

We must support them with making them aware of all good farming practices and emerging innovations that can assist in making the sustainable changes and with providing methods to enable very farm specific improvement trajectories. For the latter, we believe in the collaborative effort of farmers, vets and farm advisors in Farm Health Teams.

https://www.farmtoforkconference.eu/

This month we share with you some recent updates including our report on model farm health teams, and some interesting content from the community of practice (CoP) covering precision livestock farming and use of antibiotics in organic farming.

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• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 EN
• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 FR
• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 GR
• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 LV
• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 NL
• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 RO
• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 DK
• DISARM Newsletter May 2020 ES

On the 4th and 5th of פבואר, דISARM was represented at a workshop to explore joint research priorities between Canada and the EU on the topic of antimicrobial resistance. The workshop was organized by the Canada-EU PLC Task Force which has the objective to foster coordination between the EU and Canada regarding research on technology, science and innovation.  

In the first part of the workshop, researchers from Canada and the EU presented an overview of the state of the art research being executed on the topic of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The Canadian researchers presented their research agenda on monogastric and ruminant animals and on the environmental aspect of AMR. In monogastrics a lot of research is going into alternative feeding strategies as alternatives to antibiotics, immune modulation, מיקרוביום מניפולציה and vaccination. In ruminants the focus lies on the mechanisms of transferring antimicrobial resistance, alternatives to אנטי מיקרוביאלית use and specifically on genetic technologies. 

The European research projects presented and discussed were the One Health European Joint Programme, Healthy Livestock, DISARM, ROADMAP, and AVANT. The Healthy Livestock project focuses on intensive production in pigs and poultry, concentrating on reducing the risk for exposure to  pathogens, improving the resilience of pigs and poultry, early warning systems for better animal health management, precision medication technologies and potential alternatives for antibiotics. Similarly, AVANT is a research project which just started to investigate and test potential promising alternatives to prevent and treat post-weaning diarrhoea in pig production. ROADMAP is a research project focusing on socio-economic and institutional innovations that can stimulate or foster the transition to a more prudent use of antimicrobials in the livestock industry.  

In the second part of the workshop, the participants also collaborated on identifying common research priorities. To name a few important ones from the long list of identified priorities:  

1. More fundamental research to understand the host and (pathogenic) bacterial interactions to see what healthy microbiomes are and how they evolve through the animals’ lifespan and under changing diets and environments 
2. Rethinking of current risky animal husbandry practices that can lead to AMR and focus on optimal housing conditions, feed and feeding strategies that promote animal health and making us of state-of-the art technologies to support modern stockmanship. 
3. Socio-economic and institutional incentives to promote and foster prudent antimicrobial usage in the livestock industry. 
4. Alternatives to antimicrobials to be used in the livestock industry to be able to safeguard and maintain animal health and welfare with lesser need for antibiotics. 
5. Innovative veterinary diagnostics that can assist animal health professionals in rationalizing the use of antimicrobials in practice.  

We were happy and privileged as DISARM to be able to contribute to this future outlook on necessary internationalresearch on AMR for the benefit of the livestock industry and the global society as a whole.