The World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week takes place from November 18-24 every year.
Biosecurity protocol
- The UN-Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has created a three-zone biosecurity protocol.
- The protocol has the potential to be a crucial tool in combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) resulting from the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture.
- The FAO’s three-zone biosecurity initiative was originally launched in 2013 to contain an outbreak of the deadly avian flu.
- The avian flu pandemic killed hundreds of thousands of birds and led to millions of dollars in losses for farmers all over Southeast Asia.
- The protocol aimed to reduce infection on poultry farms by ensuring proper isolation, traffic control, cleaning and disinfection.
- Under the protocol, the livestock area on the farm gets divided into three zones, namely red or high risk, yellow or moderate risk and green or low risk.
