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Animal Health and Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are hosting Animal Health Awareness Week from November 18th to November 24th 2021. The theme for the week is ‘Sustainability for the Future’. The week coincides with European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) on Thursday, November 18th, 2021, which also marks the start of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW). 

Teagasc is supporting the week and has dedicated five podcasts for the week to Animal Health commencing on Monday November 15th.

Good animal health for optimal farm productivity

Department of Agriculture vets Damien Barrett and Caroline Garvan join Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s episode of The Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the correlation between good animal health and farm productivity.

Damien highlights the importance of optimal animal health from birth, explaining that an incidence of pneumonia can increase calving interval in later life by up to 12% and an incidence of scour is linked to lower milk production.

Furthermore, Damien recommends that farmers weigh young stock regularly to ensure heifers reach weight targets in order to calve timely at 24 months of age.

Caroline focuses on the ‘one health’ concept referring to the critical issue of antimicrobial resistance among animal and human populations.

Caroline explains the cyclical effect of antibiotic usage, where an animal is treated with an antibiotic, 60% is excreted into the environment which gives rise antibiotic exposure to more animals driving the development of resistance.

The dangers of antimicrobial resistance in animal health

With global temperatures on the rise, this week’s Environment Edge podcast asks how will this affect exotic and endemic disease in Ireland?

Superintending Veterinary Inspectors Caroline Garvan & Damien Barrett join Cathal Somers and Deirdre Glynn to chat about antimicrobial resistance, animal health and the upcoming Department of Agriculture Food & the Marine’s Animal Health Awareness week running from the 18 – 24th  November.

Dealing with antimicrobial resistance and the upcoming challenges for pig producers

There’s no one more aware than the pig producers of the importance of animal health in the pig production system and on this week’s episode of the Pig Edge podcast, Superintending Vet Inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Caroline Garvan and Dr. Damien Barrett join Amy Quinn to discuss Animal Health Awareness Week, the rise in antimicrobial resistance and the upcoming challenges for producers, including the new legislation on veterinary medicines coming into effect in January 2022.

Animal Health Awareness week – Focus on AMR

As part of Animal Health Awareness week, on this week’s OviCast are Department of Agriculture Vets, Caroline Garvan and Damian Barrett, to discuss antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Damian begins by explaining the objective of Animal Health Awareness week and its importance in the current climate while Caroline explains why Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major concern and the concept of the one health approach.

They discuss the usage within the sheep sector and how the overall industry figure is calculated and Caroline explains why some types of antibiotics are deemed critically important due to their use in human medicine and how the route of administration can impact the development of AMR.

Both Damian and Caroline discuss how good animal health can impact productivity, how we should approach health issues on farms and ways sheep farmers can reduce their antibiotic use.

They move on to discuss some of the health challenges facing the sector at present and discuss the programme of informative webinars that will take place as part of this year’s Animal Health Awareness week that runs from 18th-24th November.

For more information on:

Antimicrobial resistance and future challenges to the beef herd

Teagasc Specialist Catherine Egan is joined by Superintending Veterinary Inspectors Caroline Garvan & Damien Barrett to discuss antimicrobial resistance, future challenges to the beef herd and the upcoming Animal Health Awareness Week.

With legislative changes around prescription and parasite treatment coming in 2022, Caroline Garvan & Damien Barrett, Superintending Veterinary Inspectors with the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine (DAFM) discuss antimicrobial resistance, the future challenges to the beef herd and the upcoming Animal Health Awareness Week, which is running from the 18-24th November.

For further information visit: www.gov.ie/animalhealth

Find out more

Find out more about the DAFM Animal Health and Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week here on the DAFM website  

DAFM Programme of events for Animal Health and Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Wee