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. 2018 Jan 17:7:7.
doi: 10.1186/s13756-017-0294-9. eCollection 2018.

World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals

Awa Aidara-Kane  1 , Frederick J Angulo  2 , John M Conly  3 , Yuki Minato  1 , Ellen K Silbergeld  4 , Scott A McEwen  5 , Peter J Collignon  6 ; WHO Guideline Development Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals

Awa Aidara-Kane et al. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. .

Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial use in food-producing animals selects for antimicrobial resistance that can be transmitted to humans via food or other transmission routes. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 ranked the medical importance of antimicrobials used in humans. In late 2017, to preserve the effectiveness of medically important antimicrobials for humans, WHO released guidelines on use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals that incorporated the latest WHO rankings.

Methods: WHO commissioned systematic reviews and literature reviews, and convened a Guideline Development Group (GDG) of external experts free of unacceptable conflicts-of-interest. The GDG assessed the evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach, and formulated recommendations using a structured evidence-to-decision approach that considered the balance of benefits and harms, feasibility, resource implications, and impact on equity. The resulting guidelines were peer-reviewed by an independent External Review Group and approved by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee.

Results: These guidelines recommend reductions in the overall use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals, including complete restriction of use of antimicrobials for growth promotion and for disease prevention (i.e., in healthy animals considered at risk of infection). These guidelines also recommend that antimicrobials identified as critically important for humans not be used in food-producing animals for treatment or disease control unless susceptibility testing demonstrates the drug to be the only treatment option.

Conclusions: To preserve the effectiveness of medically important antimicrobials, veterinarians, farmers, regulatory agencies, and all other stakeholders are urged to adopt these recommendations and work towards implementation of these guidelines.

Keywords: Agriculture; Antimicrobial resistance; Antimicrobial use; Food safety; Guidelines; Health consequences; Zoonoses.

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Conflict of interest statement

Not applicable.Not applicable.AA, FA, JC, YM, ES, and PC declare that they have no competing interests. SM reports contracts from Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada and Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, all outside the scope of the submitted work.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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