The Federal Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance and use in Canada is a national policy with a cross-sectoral approach. The overall goal of the Action Plan is to prevent, limit, and control the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System will be established by the Public Health Agency of Canada to strengthen coordination and integration of antimicrobial resistance/antimicrobial use activities and information. Surveillance systems will be strengthened to identify new threats or changing patterns in antimicrobial resistance and use, in human and animal settings. The promotion of the appropriate use of antimicrobials in human and veterinary medicine will be strengthened to conserve the effectiveness of existing treatments through infection prevention and control guidelines. Public awareness will be raised on the use of antimicrobials. In the agri-food sector, the prudent use of antimicrobials in food animal production will be promoted. The collaboration between Health Canada and federal partners, drug sponsors, food animal producers and other stakeholders will be strengthened to remove growth promotion claims of medically-important veterinary antimicrobial drugs by December 2016. Measures will be taken regarding drug labels that indicate information related to bacterial susceptibility to antimicrobials. Health products for food-producing animals, including the importation, licensing, and sale of veterinary drugs, medicated feeds, and vaccines, will be controlled to reduce the use of antimicrobials. The effectiveness of authorized antimicrobials will be preserved by evaluating the safety, quality and effectiveness of these drugs, including post-market monitoring through collection and analysis of adverse reaction reports. Imported, manufactured or sold medicated feeds will be controlled according to the standards set by Health Canada through premarket assessment, inspection, and sampling by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Innovation will be promoted through funding collaborative research and development efforts on antimicrobial resistance both domestically and internationally. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will continue to support research and innovation on improvements in animal production practices, disease prevention and treatment, and development of vaccines in order to reduce the requirements for antimicrobials in the animal production industry.
Canada · 2015-03-01