Shared-practice approach to responsible antimicrobial use in farm animal vets in Wales

Encouraging and supporting farm animal vets to prescribe antimicrobials responsibly is a shared global goal and one that has engendered many different approaches from strict legislative and regulatory control to voluntary initiatives. This article outlines the approach taken in Wales via the Arwain DGC project and the establishment of the Veterinary Prescribing Champions Network.

The Welsh Government is advised by an Animal and Environment Antimicrobial Resistance Delivery Group. This advisory group developed the Antimicrobial Resistance in Animals and the Environment Five Year Implementation Plan for Wales 2019–2024 (2019) with the Office of the Chief Veterinary Officer (OCVO), which was actively seeking ways to support Welsh vets to lead the way on responsible antimicrobial use.

Iechyd Da, the Animal and Plant Health Agency's regional veterinary delivery partners for South Wales, had been considering ways of bringing their practices together to improve veterinary prescribing and to tackle perceived issues of farmers sourcing medicines from multiple practices in the region. Iechyd Da and the OCVO approached Professor Kristen Reyher and Dr Gwen Rees at the University of Bristol's antimicrobial resistance research group (AMR Force) to discuss how best to design an intervention that addressed these issues.