Grant: Operating Grant - EUP OHAMR Joint Transnational Call - Application

Antibiotics are essential medicines for treating infections in both people and animals. However, some antibiotics are especially important for human health because they are used to treat serious or life-threatening infections. When these critical antibiotics are used in livestock, they can create pressure that favours the survival and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may infect animals and humans. This can ultimately make human infections harder to treat. This project will generate evidence to support smarter and safer use of critical antibiotics in dairy cattle. We will focus on common cattle diseases that require treatment and may lead to variable antibiotic-use practices on farms. Using advanced DNA sequencing, laboratory experiments, environmental studies, and mathematical models, we will investigate how antibiotic use in livestock contributes to the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria. We will also examine how resistance genes may move between bacteria and across farm, soil, environmental, animal, and human settings. We will combine information from veterinary and human bacterial isolates, farm antibiotic-use data, and environmental samples, and identify the conditions under which resistance is most likely to develop and spread. A major goal of the project is to translate scientific evidence into practical guidance. We will develop models to compare different disease-management and antibiotic-stewardship strategies, including scenarios where the use of critical antibiotics is reduced or restricted. These models will help predict which approaches are most likely to reduce antibiotic resistance while still protecting animal health and welfare. Ultimately, this work will support evidence-based policies and farm-level decisions that reduce unnecessary use of critical antibiotics, protect animal health, and help preserve the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotics for people.