Cyfarfod Chwarterol 4 Grŵp Iechyd Anifeiliaid Cymru ar Ymwrthedd Gwrthficrobaidd: 24 Medi 2025

Rob Smith* (RS) Iechyd Da/Arwain DGC
Thomas Bletcher* (TB) Farmer
Ifan Davies* (ID) YFC Representative
Mary Nelson (MN) Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD)
Meryl Davies* (MD) Public Health Wales (PHW)
Catrin Moore* (CM) Microbiology Society
Ifan Lloyd* (IL) Iechyd Da/Arwain DGC
Simon Rolfe (SR) HSS, Welsh Government
Richard Pizzey* (RP) OCVO, Welsh Government
Sian Timms (ST) OCVO, Welsh Government
Kirsty Falcus (KF) OCVO, Welsh Government
Natalie Sampson (NS) OCVO, Welsh Government
Alan Radford (AR) University of Liverpool
Fiona Lovatt (FL) RCVS Knowledge
Natasha Hands (NH) PhD Placement, OCVO, Welsh Government

Apologies:

Sarah Carr* (SC) Vet & Farmer/Animal Health & Welfare Framework Group Representative
Gwen Rees* (GR) Aberystwyth University/Arwain DGC
Hywel Morgan* (HM) Farmer
Kitty Healey* (KH) Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD)
Chris Teale* (CT) Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)
Muna Anjum (MA) Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)
Peter Jones (PJ) HSS, Welsh Government

Facilitator(s): please contact waeamrdg@gov.wales
    
KEY
* = DG Board Member
^ = Technical issues
 

RP welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Ifan Davies and Alan Radford. 

Minutes circulated via email, if no comments by Friday 3^rd October, then minutes will be published on the website. 

Actions reviewed, several actions have been closed others relate to the companion animal discussion of December meeting. Top three risks and issues now displayed on actions log.

DG members

MD 

i)    Currently working on WAAW campaign. 
ii)    Successful theory of change workshop, review now in circulation. 
iii)    Looking at resources seeing how public access information and messages, is this social media or print comms? 
iv)    Case studies being worked on, studies with doctors and patients as well as scientists at Bangor University researching AMR in the environment. Joint comms with Bangor for this. 
v)    Linking with WG on Go Blue campaign. 
vi)    Busy planning for AMS forum in October, as well as next years forum. Looking into One Health conference for next year. 
vii)    Shortlisted in Welsh Pharmacy and Welsh Healthcare awards. 
viii)    RP interested in case studies, could be helpful when looking at companion animals. 
ix)    SR, could the One Health conference be more specific instead of just general AMR? IL supports SR in looking at behavioural change and social science.

RS

i)    Arwain DGC partners meeting held in September to discuss successes and plans for the future. 
ii)    Discussion around extra RIS funding received from WG. 
iii)    Mentera have attended events such as farming connect open days on behalf of Arwain DGC. 
iv)    VPC clinical leads now in role to support VPC’s and practices. 
v)    Innovation grants have been rolled out and projects now starting. 
vi)    Bristol Uni work is progressing. 
vii)    WLBP work continues to build their database for AMU.
viii)    Iechyd Da pushing biosecurity, meeting with veterinary users to comment on behaviour, including barriers/enabling. 
ix)    Activities planned for WAAW week, Dilwyn Evans recording several podcasts promoting responsible AMU. 
x)    Ffermio joining Arwain study tour to do programme on AMR. 
 

TB

i)    Working with Arwain on faecal samples. 
ii)    Leadership from milk buyers as to what antibiotics can be used, monitoring increasing from milk buyers.
iii)    Reviews on a yearly basis from vets, communication key making sure everyone is on the same page.
iv)    Buyers working with farmers. 
v)    Now SFS is finalised can move forward and see how it benefits, not sure on uptake as still some negative feedback. 
vi)    RP: Has there been any detrimental impact from changes? No, not been any changes. Arwain data is showing resistance to some antibiotics being used, no resistance found to critically resistant antibiotics. Less antibiotics being used due to different managing. Monitoring systems on cows, allowing action to be taken a lot quicker. 
vii)    RS: good news, are farmers hearing about any evidence of other farmers turning to other methods of acquiring antibiotics? TB haven’t heard anything, previously farmers saved money by buying from Ireland but not so much now.

CM 

i)    Microbiology society conference being planned for next year. 
ii)    Presented AMR in focus, online webinar on diagnostics, part of a series. May ask group about speakers.

ID 

i)    Introduction as chair of the rural affairs committee with the YFC. Also work at a college and work on farm at home. 

Arwain has already been covered by Rob. 

Advert out for PhD placement to look at companion animal AMR. December meeting to host a workshop around what to do in the companion animal space. 

CM suggested looking to invite Nicola Williams (Liverpool). 

Lot of work going on around WAAW. 

Attended RUMA TTF meeting. 

Busy finalising details of additional funding which as been awarded to Arwain. 

Observation of collaborative ethos on animal health group.

NAP should be used as an opportunity to use to drive change. 

Reporting against four milestones for animal health to GRIP, twice yearly reporting. Report on risk and issues which are cross cutting across all areas. 

Focus group with vet and GP front of house staff, held in September, looking at their role in prescribing and AMS. 

ID: funding identified as a risk, is the commitment to funding found across all four nations? SR, yes, funding commitment is there, there is funding pressures. More of struggle where private sector is also involved.

Written update provided:

In August the UK government published its response to the Public Accounts Committee’s recommendations on AMR in their report “Antimicrobial resistance: addressing the risks”, following a committee hearing held in February to scrutinise the government's action. The government agreed with the committee’s recommendations, and actions have been incorporated into NAP delivery where needed. (Scope of PAC review was England, not whole of UK.)

A 1-year AMR National Action Plan summary report is in the pipeline for Ministerial clearance ahead of publication in the autumn.

The Responsible use of medicines Agriculture alliance (RUMA) Targets task force (TTF) presented their proposed AMR targets to the UK CVOs and the Defra AMR NAP delivery board for scrutiny over the summer, with the goal of incorporating these targets into the goals of the UK AMR NAP. There was good support for the targets, so their incorporation into the NAP is on track to take place

The consultation on the establishment of the international Independent Panel for Evidence on AMR, which we are supporting, is now live. Recent online consultation sessions took place in September, with the UK CVO Christine Middlemiss chairing a particularly successful session.  

A groundbreaking AMR surveillance R&D project in cats and dogs has been launched and was very well received and made the national news via the BBC.

We are on track to publish this year’s VARSS report in November, covering surveillance of antimicrobial use and resistance in animals in the UK. The VARSS report will be published at the same time as the RUMA Targets Task Force’s new suite of targets for tackling AMR.

[Reminder of the background to this: the Public Accounts Committee held a hearing on the NAO report on AMR on 27 March. The committee was broadly supportive on the work on AMR in animal health, but Prof Chris Whitty raised significant concerns from a public health perspective on the risk of AMR in wastewater, and the lack of public health targets/goals in water plans. The committee also noted that there is an AMR risk where we expand trade to countries with lower standards than us, and it is not currently being factored in to some of our trade deals.]

FL introduced themselves as the chair of the sheep antibiotic guardian group.

Found it hard to get data from the ruminants sector with the exception of Wales. Most of the figures come from Wales 

New UKRI funding, being used to try and regroup the ruminant sector to try and gather more data.

UK Roadmap launching on 29^th September, stakeholders have been contacted.

Online and in person workshops and focus groups taking place with stakeholders and academics.

Encourages Welsh involvement, Wales are leading in this space and many lessons could be learnt.

Metrics have been discussed since 2017, WLBP’s always been ahead with this. Be good to see the rest of the UK replicating this.

RS – WLBP were in collaboration with Iechyd Da and Arwain’s predecessor. 

SR – thinking about risk and issues, the data is a current problem, this isn’t in a log for the UK plan. would adding it to a log give it some leverage for moving this forward. RP, sounds sensible, pick up with VMD at next 4 nations catch up (ACTION).

MD – are you taking learnings from human health targets to help develop animal health targets? Finding it hard to populate the UK medicine hub, need to step back and look at responsible stewardship, possibly need to get figures alongside other information and conversations. Balance across the UK hasn’t been correct thus far.

IL – in Wales the data collected is required, not voluntary. Submitted by vets who are working alongside the farmers to design a strategy annually together. In the UK could the scheme perhaps be not voluntary and making it a requirement for farm assurance. Not been possible thus far. Would like to replicate the Wales model across the UK. 

RP – farmers in Wales very willing to engage in conversation about this and to help them improve their AMS.

FL – is there a plan for non-assured Welsh farms? RS – FAVSNET is collecting data from all farms within a practice management system, so some non-farm assured farms are having data collected from them.

By gathering data held on computers, the data can be reused by researchers to gain insight into various areas.

Liverpool Uni collect data from vet labs and practices for FAVSNET. 

Papers are published as well as real time data dashboards created for the public to access.

Expanded from small animals to horses and then to farm animals. Farm animal data comes from vets, data from labs yet to be added.

Small animal more data rich than farm animal. Collecting species, treatment and free text which is currently well used.

Data is collected at consultations, farmers travelling to vets or vets to farms.

Collect data for all situations, not just antibiotics.

Currently covering around 10% of farms in Wales.

Need to address mixed consultations with more than one animal/treatment.

Using key words to identify syndromes, this helps to track trends and then what antibiotic treatment has been used. 

AI can be used to help group words that can represent conditions, this could be used to spot outbreaks early.

FAVSNET also allows for practice benchmarking and gives them a dashboard which shows all of the information they need to help improvement.

VET-Clin AMR project alongside VMD a powerful tool to review nationwide resistance in small animals.

Fragmented funding one of the biggest risks, although there is an opportunity to create a joined-up UK database.

Practices and labs have to opt in; farmers and clients can then opt out should they not wish their data shared. More care is taken with animal health data than human health data. Human health data is often used with an automatic opt in.

UoL want to share the data as broadly as is possible, the data available can be used by others to benefit understanding of other areas and increase value.

MD – can be delay in data from human usage. Real time data would be very interesting as it would allow for outbreaks to be identified earlier.

Social media campaign planned for X and Facebook, messaging and infographics designed for the public.

Working alongside PHW for the ‘Go Blue’ campaign, currently 4 buildings committed to lighting with several more hopefully joining.

Visit planned for the Deputy First Minister to an Arwain proof of concept farm. Visit scheduled for September but postponed, hoping to rearrange before WAAW week.

Arwain have been awarded an additional £300,000 (approx.) for expanding current workstreams as well as some new workstreams.

New project on Watery mouth to survey sheep farmers so look into the prevalence of watery mouth and treatments used. 

Expanded Bristol work, further faecal sampling on farm, broaden range of farms being sampled as well as expand microbiological work by looking at new indicator species.

Innovation fund has been expanded; 17 grants have been awarded instead of 8.

Expanded funding to FAVSNET to help expand functionality.

December Meeting

1. Meeting taking place on the 3^rd December, members to let us know if they are able to attend. This will be an in-person meeting being held in Cardiff

Natasha Hands gave a brief overview of her current PhD placement in One health.