Reducing antimicrobial use in animals with multi-sectoral collaborations

Thailand’s good governance system

Addressing OIE Strategy Objective: Support good governance and capacity building

Thailand’s National Strategic Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) aims to reduce antimicrobial use (AMU) in animals by 30% over the course of five years (2017-2021). The Department of Livestock Development (DLD) works within the National Policy Committee on AMR (NPC-AMR) and cooperates with many stakeholders to implement the plan using good governance. In the first year, AMU in animals was reduced by 6.4%.

Thailand’s National Strategic Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2017-2021 was developed to address the global issue of AMR. The plan is being implemented using a One Health approach, with the NPC-AMR acting as a national governance mechanism to provide a high-impact policy outcome. Under this committee, national governance mechanisms were established, and multi-sectoral collaboration strengthened.

The Director General (DG) of the Department of Livestock Development (DLD), Dr Sorravis Thaneto, is the OIE Delegate for Thailand. He is co-secretary for the National Strategic Plan (NSP) and has been assigned to the NPC-AMR.

Goals set to be achieved by the year 2021 include a 30% reduction in antimicrobial use in animals. DLD has cooperated to drive the NSP in the veterinary sector. This involves many stakeholders: international organisations, veterinary schools, governments, the Veterinary Council of Thailand, the private sector (i.e. companies and producers), and other associations and non-government organisations.

Sub-committee for appropriate antimicrobial usage

The DLD is the focal point for “AMR prevention and antimicrobial stewardship in agriculture and animals” within the NSP. The sub-committee for this strategy focuses on appropriate antimicrobial use with various activities such as:

Prohibition of the use of antimicrobials as growth promoters in food animals.
Regulation of medicated feed (effective from 25 September 2018). This regulation was issued under the Animal Feed Quality Control Act B.E. 2558 (2015).
Projects for surveillance and monitoring of AMR and AMU in livestock.
Meetings and training courses to enhance performance of veterinarians and official staffs. For example, to implement regulations on medicated feed, training veterinarians at feed mills and farm level on prescription use.
Promote prudent use of antimicrobials by encouraging farmers to use good farming practices.
Reducing antimicrobial use on farms and supporting alternative such as herbs and pre-/probiotics to improve animal health.
“Raised without antibiotics (RWA)” project that enhances cooperation and collaboration between farmers and market sectors.

Monitoring and evaluation

Outputs from Thailand’s efforts on AMR include:

National Policy Committee on AMR has been established, chaired by the deputy prime minister in the Ministry of Public Health.
Thailand’s One Health Report on Antimicrobial Consumption and Antimicrobial Resistance was published in 2017 and 2018 (English version available).
Midterm Progress Report for Thailand’s National Strategic Plan on AMR was published in 2019 (in Thai).
From 2017 to 2018, the overall use of antimicrobials in food producing animals was reduced by 6.4%.