Regional
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
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Since animal feed plays a vital role in the global food industry as a key component of the food chain, ensuring its safety is essential, as it directly affects animal health, animal welfare, food safety, food security and trade, and human health. With the growing international distribution of feed, regional/global activities and collaboration related to animal health and the safety of animal products, including feed safety, are becoming increasingly important. However, the capacity to test feeds differs widely among WOAH Members in the Asia Pacific region.
The Food and Agricultural Materials Inspection Center (FAMIC) in Japan is the WOAH Collaborating Centre for Animal Feed Safety and Analysis and has been contributing to that field through providing relevant expertise and supporting the development of relevant standards. As part of its efforts to ensure feed safety, FAMIC regularly provides technical training on feed analysis to member countries/territories of the Asia-Pacific Region in collaboration with the WOAH Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific (RRAP) through regional workshops. At the 2nd OIE Regional Workshop on Animal Feed Safety held in 2019, recommendations were developed regarding feed safety for WOAH Members in the region, WOAH, and FAMIC. Based on these recommendations, FAMIC established a Laboratory Network on Animal Feed Safety in Asia and the Pacific. Furthermore, to address the needs of regional Members, a virtual training sequence was organized for laboratories responsible for feed safety on heavy metals in November 2021 and on pesticides in February 2023. To organise the training to meet the specific needs of WOAH Members in the region, FAMIC conducted a questionnaire through the laboratory network to identify for which analytical methods were most needed by participants. Based on the questionnaire results, FAMIC plans to organise technical training on the analysis of antimicrobials in feed, which was the most requested components in feed.
Unlike other harmful substances such as mycotoxins, antimicrobials are intentionally added to feed – to treat, control or prevent illnesses or as growth-promoters. Regulations around the use of antimicrobials in feed vary among WOAH Members and ability to enforce related regulations also vary widely. To ensure feed safety through accurate management of antimicrobials used in feed, it is essential to learn appropriate analytical methods for measuring antimicrobial concentrations in feed.
Similar to the training sessions in 2021 and 2023, WOAH will organise a short “workshop” to facilitate information sharing before the training. WOAH plans to share key points from WOAH standards and guidance related to antimicrobial use in animal feed and findings from ANIMUSE and invite an expert and representatives from WOAH Members to share experiences.
The objectives of the workshop/training are:
Format: Virtual workshop (1.5 hours) and virtual training (2 hours)
Date: 16 January 2025, 13:00 – 16:30 (Japan Standard Time)
Registration: Zoom (click to register)
