NOAH’s Dr Lucy Coyne Reflects on 9 Years of World AMR Awareness Week
21st November 2024
In this blog post, Dr Lucy Coyne, NOAH’s Senior Technical Manager, reflects on the nine years since the first World AMR Awareness Week, and how her career in animal health has followed its path.
World AMR Awareness Week first launched in 2015 a time when I began my slightly unconventional and rather meandering career in One Health policy and responsible antimicrobial use. Realising I have spent nine years talking about antimicrobial use and resistance in the One Health space made me quite reflective of what we (the UK animal health sector) have achieved.
I started a PhD exploring antimicrobial use in pig production back in 2012, a time when there was a lot of apprehension and concern over the use of terminology like ‘reduce’ when talking about antimicrobial use (understandably when livestock production is often subject to public scrutiny and criticism). I look at the 69% reduction in total antimicrobial use in pigs since 2015 and cannot believe how much has been achieved. I worked at AHDB Pork in 2015 when industry first started collecting baseline antimicrobial use data and earned myself an electronic Medicines Book mouse mat for my time communicating with farmers on the need to collect antimicrobial use data.
The success seen through reductions in use across sectors has been entirely lead and driven by industry through the Targets Task Force (a widespread industry collaboration spearheaded by RUMA). This has not always been without challenges but all the barriers in the road seem to just make those involved more determined and passionate.
Another key change I have seen since my journey began in the industry is the move away from ‘how to best use antimicrobials’ to how can we harmonise and manage livestock to avoid the need for antimicrobials. I have been involved in two amazing initiatives in my career to support vets with knowledge and guidance to support responsible antimicrobial use. The NOAH Vaccination Guideline which supports vaccination decisions for farms and RCVS Knowledge’s Farm Vet Champions which is a network of likeminded vets which offer training and support on responsible antimicrobial use.
In my current role at NOAH, I have also been able to support farmer training through updating the Animal Medicines Best Practice course (a NOAH initiative to offer an online medicine training course for farmers). The update reflects how far we (the livestock industry) have come and offers farmers a new way to think about herd and flock management.
What a nine years it has been for UK livestock in showing the passion from industry to use antimicrobials ‘as little as possible but as much as necessary’. I am really fortunate that my career path has supported this amazing work and proud to have been part of the journey.