Surveillance of antimicrobial use and resistance in Canadian feedlot cattle

The Public Health Agency of Canada monitors antimicrobial resistance in healthy livestock arriving at abattoirs and retail meat through it’s Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS). On-farm programs to collect antimicrobial use (AMU) and resistance (AMR) data have also been in place for the poultry and swine sectors for several years. Several collaborative initiatives involving CIPARS, AAFC and the beef industry have developed a workable template and methodology to monitor AMU and AMR in commercial feedlot settings. Although some feedlot AMR surveillance has been conducted since 2017 in conjunction with FoodNet Canada’s Alberta site, internal resource limitations have hindered CIPARS efforts to establish a true, national on-farm AMU and AMR component for feedlot cattle.

Building on past and ongoing CIPARS efforts, the objectives of this initiative are to provide representative estimates of AMU and AMR in the Canadian finishing feedlot sector, provide a unified approach to monitor trends over time in AMU and AMR in the Canadian finishing feedlot sector and (based on emerging trends in AMR) investigate associations between AMU and AMR periodically on a targeted basis. A parallel effort will provide representative estimates of veterinary antimicrobial dispensing data in the Canadian finishing feedlot sector and provide a unified approach to monitor trends over time in veterinary antimicrobial dispensing; in the finishing feedlot sector.