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Antimicrobial Stewardship

Responsible antimicrobial use in animals is important to veterinary medicine and in a One Health context, a key component of limiting the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Antimicrobial Stewardship

Policy and Outreach

Antimicrobial Stewardship

CAHI has a proud history of actively supporting antimicrobial stewardship initiatives. Here are some of the way’s CAHI and our members address this topic:

  • Lobbying Health Canada to end Own Use Importation and increase oversight of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient use;
  • Committing to remove growth promotion claims from product labels by December 1, 2018;
  • Encouraging Health Canada to take steps to align with veterinary antimicrobial use policies in other jurisdictions; and
  • Creating the responsible use logo for voluntary use on veterinary product labels.

As a result, since December 1, 2018, a veterinary prescription is needed to use Category I, II and III medically important antimicrobials (MIAs) in animals.

Other changes made by Health Canada have included:

  • Ending Own Use Importation of MIAs by animal owners effective November 13, 2017;
  • Increased oversight and new rules for the handling of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients for veterinary use starting May 17, 2018;
  • Implementing mandatory reporting of sales information related to MIAs;
  • New requirements and the expansion of the Veterinary Health Products (VHP) Notification Program to increase access to alternative products for production animals.

More information about these regulatory and policy changes can be found on the Health Canada website.
Questions about regulatory and policy changes should be sent to vetdrugs-medsvet@hc-sc.gc.ca.

More information about updates being made to the Compendium of Medicating Ingredient Brochures (CMIB) can be found on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website. Questions about these updates should be sent to your local CFIA office.

Collaboration with CVMA

Along with Health Canada, CAHI collaborated with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) and the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada (ANAC) to help raise awareness of these changes.

  • Veterinarians should refer to the CVMA website for additional materials
  • Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have created some template tools to assist veterinarians when writing feed prescriptions. The use of these templates is optional.

An ANAC fact sheet detailing how changes to the Compendium of Medicating Ingredient Brochures are managed can be found here.

Roadmap to Reducing the Need for Antibiotics

In November 2019, HealthforAnimals Members launched the ‘Roadmap to Reducing the Need for Antibiotics.’ It set out a sector-wide strategy to advance responsible use and addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally.

CAHI is dedicated in stewardship for the responsible use of antimicrobials and advocating in the importance of making sure that we continue to have the tools we need to keep animals healthy and ensure good animal welfare.

These efforts are helping reduce the need for antibiotics and advance responsible use. Read on for the final results against all 25 goals tracked in the link below.

Read the 2020–25 Report