Documentation of antimicrobial resistance data in veterinary practices in Germany

Antimicrobial resistance remains one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. By creating a selection pressure, the use of antimicrobials in general and the inappropriate overuse especially, fuels the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in all sectors (human, veterinary and environment).

Therefore, numerous (inter-)national surveillance systems have been established to monitor the use of antimicrobial agents, yet the recording of antimicrobial resistance at the farm level remains scarce.
In Germany, the documentation of the use of antimicrobial agents in food-producing animals has been mandatory since 1975, with a standardised documentation and reporting format in place today. However, the reporting of susceptibility test results at the farm level is not subject to legal regulation. While there are some regulatory frameworks regarding documentation, we observe considerable heterogeneity in terms of content and format of the documented data.

The objective of this investigation is to provide a detailed account of the existing heterogeneity of documentation in German veterinary practices, in order to develop a data structure that can be used for future AMR monitoring at the farm level, based on routine veterinary diagnostic data.

To this end, the data transfer and processing are described, and the documentation of the individual components of the susceptibility tests in participating practices and laboratories is discussed. Based on this, it will be shown which components should be included in a monitoring system and why.
Finally, two possible paths for a monitoring system will be presented, along with recommendations.