Monitoring consumption of antibiotics in the veterinary field
Monitoring consumption of antibiotics in the veterinary field
In 2010, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) launched the European ‘Surveillance’ of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC) project, following a request from the European Commission to develop a harmonised approach for the collection and reporting of data on the use of antimicrobial agents in animals from EU member states. In fact from 2005 to 2009, data from nine member states were already ‘voluntarily’ collected and sent to the EMA to be published in the first report.
The ESVAC project collects ‘minimum’ information from various member states about the sales of veterinary antibiotic agents for livestock animals and companion animals. The EMA believes that this type of information is essential to identify possible risk factors that lead to the spread of resistance in bacterial pathogens of animal origin. However, the ESVAC’s second report containing 2010 sales data from 19 member states, did not include data from Germany and Italy (the latter had collected the data, but it was sent after the final draft of the 2010 report was prepared).
In October 2013, the EMA published the third project report containing 2011 data. The report includes sales data submitted by 25 EU/EEA countries.
In 2014 the EMA published the fourth report of the project, which includes sales data from 26 countries.
In 2017 it was published the seventh ESVAC Report (2015 data) which includes data of antimicrobial sales from 30 European Countries. The ESVAC Reports are published yearly and they are accessible on the EMA website at the following URL: