AMR Surveillance

Surveillance is essential to guide and inform policy making and assess efficacy of interventions on how best to slow the emergence and spread of AMR for the good of food security and global health. Reliable data are needed on antimicrobialresistant microorganisms – their distribution, AMR profiles and prevalence – in addition to data on the extent of the use of antimicrobialsin humans, animals and plants . Strong surveillance and monitoring programmes collect risk-based epidemiological data on AMR, AMU relevant to each sector. This information then allows for timely assessment of hazards to feed risk assessments to develop appropriate interventions and monitor their effectiveness over time for minimizing and containing AMR. Given competing budget priorities, surveillance is also helpful for guiding resource allocation decisions that promote efficiency and preparedness by identifying risks before they become large-scale emergencies.

Sector-specific surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and use are essential butsharing and comparingharmonized data across sectors is equally important to support a One Health response. Integrated surveillance consists of coordinateddata collection,sampling and testing of antimicrobial use and/or resistance and their determinants across at least two relevant sectors (humans, animals, plants, environment), using epidemiological and microbiological methods that enable comparison of results.