Pakistan, recognizing the critical threat posed by Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), has taken a significant step forward in combating this silent pandemic with the launch of the policy brief titled “Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance in Pakistan” on Friday.
The policy brief presents and shares the findings and recommendations from a comprehensive surveillance pilot study conducted from July 2020 to December 2022.
While addressing the occasion, Animal Husbandry Commissioner, Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) Dr Muhammad Akram said AMR has emerged as a global health crisis, claiming 5 million lives annually worldwide, with an estimated 60,000 deaths occurring in Pakistan alone.
He appreciated the efforts of DAI’s Fleming Funds project’s adding that AMR has emerged as a major health concern across the globe including Pakistan, resulting in an alarming increase in the burden of infections due to multidrug resistant organisms, while limiting the choice of antimicrobials for treatment.
AMR results in mortality and economic losses in animal’s sector. He appreciated the support of Fleming Fund for containment of AMR in low- and middle-income countries including Pakistan.
Improper antimicrobial use in both human and animal sectors has fueled the rise of resistant microbes, posing a significant challenge to public health systems, he said adding, Pakistan, as the world’s 5th most populous country with over 219 million livestock, bears a significant burden of AMR.
He held that the government had formulated a National Action Plan (NAP) in 2017 with the aim of mitigating AMR both in animals and human sectors.
The MNFS&R with the support of Fleming Fund Country Grant Pakistan, initiated a pilot surveillance study to establish AMR surveillance systems in healthy food animals. This study focused on enhancing epidemiological skills, sample processing, diagnostics, and data management, while estimating the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in selected bacteria within poultry and large ruminants (cattle and buffaloes).
Key findings from the study include extremely high resistance to various antibiotics in both cattle/buffalo and poultry isolates, geographically elevated levels of resistance across all provinces and seasonal variations in resistance patterns. This calls for timely interventions.
Despite technical challenges, the study underscores the importance of continuous collaboration, capacity-building, and sustainable funding to combat AMR effectively.
Team Lead for The Fleming Funds Country Grant Pakistan, Dr. QadeerAhsan on the occasion explained salient achievements of FF project during Phase-1 from 2019 to 2023 and elaborated broad thematic areas of the project support during Phase-2 from 2024 to 2025 including production and analysis of quality AMR/ AMC and burden of disease data, sharing quality data with decision-makers and sustainability.
He said that it is high time we as practitioners realize the importance of this subject and make amends in correcting our course of veterinary practices and regulatory compliance.
Moving forward, the AHC and Team Lead FF jointly emphasized the importance of implementing targeted interventions based on the report’s recommendations, enhancing surveillance activities, and fostering collaboration at federal and provincial levels. Sustainable funding mechanisms to be developed to ensure the long-term effectiveness of AMR surveillance activities in the livestock sector.
