The World Bank Group’s Agriculture Global Practice is organizing a series of Food for All Talks under the WBG-Netherlands Partnership “Food for All”. This fifth edition focuses on “Overusing Antibiotics in the Livestock Sector: something can be done!” and gives an overview of the best practices from the Netherlands and new “One Health” developments in Brussels (EC). The event takes place on Thursday September 28, 2017 (12:30 – 14:00 AM EST in Washington DC || 18:30 – 20:00 pm CET in Netherlands) and can also be attended globally through WebEx (see below for details). 

Once an arid technical discussion for experts, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) has emerged as a critical issue for development that will be disastrous for human and animal health, food production and global economies. AMR is the ability of microorganisms to resist antimicrobial treatments. It is a natural phenomenon but an accumulation of factors, including excessive and inappropriate use of antimicrobial medicines on humans and animals and poor hygiene or infection control practices, transformed AMR into a serious threat to public health worldwide.

In the period 2008-2011 the Dutch policy for a substantial reduction and a more responsible use of antibiotics in the livestock industry was to address the persistent high level of antibiotic use in the livestock sector as well as public concerns about transfer of antimicrobial resistance to humans along the food chain. A discrepancy existed between the very low use of antimicrobials in Dutch health care and high use in the livestock sector. The policy has been a success. Sales of veterinary antimicrobials dropped by more than 64% between 2009 and 2016, and antimicrobial resistance levels decreased substantially as a result of the reduced use. These results are achieved by intensive collaboration between government, the veterinary association and stakeholders within the major livestock sectors.

Food for All Talk

In this Food for All Talk, Christianne Bruschke, Chief Veterinary Officer of the Netherlands, will explain the key factors behind the success and how the next step in policy development gives more emphasis on prevention rather than cure. We will explore how the sector can organize and adapt itself for success without sacrificing livestock production or farmer income, relevance for developing countries and the linkage with a broader One Health approach.

In June 2017, the European Commission adopted an EU One Health Action Plan against AMR. Lorenzo Terzi,  Head of Section Health, Food Safety and Consumer Affairs of the Delegation of the EU to the USA, will explain this Action Plan, and more specifically  how it supports the delivering of innovative, effective and sustainable responses to AMR, and the shaping of the global agenda in the fight against AMR through international cooperation.

How to join

Join Using WebEx: Meeting password: xpEduS5J; Meeting number: 731 748 026.

Join Using Phone: Toll: 1-650-479-3207; Access code: 731 748 026.

By Video Conference: , External IP: 192.86.102.202; followed by internal dial-in number 55760004.

Background information

Christianne Bruschke graduated in 1991 as veterinarian and started working in a mixed private practice in the north of the Netherlands. In 1993 she joined the Virology department of the Central Veterinary Institute in Lelystad where she did a PhD on pestivirology and was heading the laboratory for bovine virology from 1994 on. After the classical swine fever outbreak in the Netherlands she was seconded for a year to the Inspection Service for Livestock and Meat to support the updating of the Dutch contingency plans. A year later she returned to Lelystad as head of the unit Notifiable Diseases and 2 years later she became director of the Division of Infectious Diseases. In 2005 joined the Ministry of Agriculture and was seconded to the OIE where she led the global Avian Influenza Programme. In 2008 she returned to The Hague as deputy Chief Veterinary Officer and since 2010 she is the Chief Veterinary Officer of the Netherlands.  She is the primary adviser to the Minister of Agriculture on all veterinary and veterinary public health issues.

Food for All Talks

The Food for All Talks is a series initiated by the Food for All Partnership of the World Bank Group and the Netherlands. They deliver new insights on strategic issues and operational questions around agriculture and food value chains for the WBG. For more information, visit the Food for All webpage.