Global food supply in danger, warn industry experts
INDUSTRY experts and scientists have met to discuss the urgent need toimprove the management and use of antimicrobials in agrifood systems in order to support a sustainable, safe and resilient food supply.
Key stakeholders, researchers and academics attended a meeting called by N8 Agrifood, held at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire,to produce research proposals on antimicrobial use (AMU) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in livestock.
AMR is currently one of the biggest threats facing the future of global healthcare delivery, with experts predicting by 2050 it will be a bigger cause of death than cancer. It occurs when microorganisms, such as bacteria and parasites, change when they are exposed to antibiotics and antivirals.
Currently in the UK, 5,000 deaths per year are caused as a result of AMR. If not tackled, it is believed that it may reach the stage of making medical procedures, such as chemotherapy and childbirth, too risky to perform.
The N8 AgriFood Industry Innovation Forum, co-hosted by the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB),invited 55external stakeholders, scientists and academics to share ideas around the discovery of new antimicrobials.
The forum, ‘Antimicrobial use, residues and resistance in the agrifood systems’, asked attendees to generate embryonic research proposals for AMU and AMR for the areas of pigs, poultry, cattle, policy and systems and data analytics.
N8 AgriFood is an interdisciplinary research programme that combines world-leading crop and livestock research with expertise in social sciences in a single research initiative. It has recently started a project with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to assess the economics of antimicrobial use in SE Asia.
Professor Jonathan Rushton, N8 chair in Animal Health and Food Systems Economics, led the high level session, which focused on how to measure AMR, comparing antimicrobials to their alternatives and how to communicate information around the issue.
Global food production will also be under threat unless solutions to AMR are identified. The N8 AgriFood programme is leading the drive to identify and initiate partnerships for exchange, research and funding that will help to influence government policy, improve knowledge around antimicrobial resistance and to develop new strategies.
Prof Rushton, who also works for the Institute of Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool, said: “Antimicrobial resistance in food animal production systems has recently become
the focus of considerable scientific attention. There is now a consensus that AMR represents a One Health/Ecohealth challenge that urgently needs to be tackled by the international community.
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“A number of high-level reports have indicated the urgency to formulate and conduct interventions to curb antimicrobial usage and AMR, both in human medicine as well as in animal production.
“N8Agrifood is well placed to play a role in providing academic expertise and engaging with the different people and organisations across the food system. We focus on building agrifood systems that are sustainable and safe and a clear message has been sent that antimicrobial use in agriculture needs to be reduced. This supports and builds on the work of the public and private sectors in the UK and international organisations.
“Our latest forum was very productive inexplaining howN8’s Agrifood programme can support research around the AMR and AMU complex.
“In the livestock sector the issues are so complex we believe that solutions can only be found through developing partnerships between governments, private industry and academia.”
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The N8 AgriFood Resilience Programme was created to tackle the challenges facing the future of food systems in a collaborative, multidisciplinary and innovative approach. It combines world-leading research expertise from theeight most research intensive universities in the North of England (Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York) and works witha wide range of agri-food stakeholders including industry, government, NGOs and regulators both locally and internationally. The goals of the N8 AgriFood programme include sustainable food production, resilient supply chains and improved consumption and health.
The N8 Research Partnership (N8) is the collaboration body for the universities of Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, and York, and aims to maximise the impact of this research base to enable business innovation and societal transformation.The N8 universities form the largest research-pooling partnership in the UK.
N8 creates programmes involving a critical mass of world class academics which form networks of innovation excellence with partners in other sectors – to drive investment and economic growth.
N8’s priority areas of collaborative research areUrban and Community Transformation – including Policing Research, Urban Living and Arts and Culture; and AgriFood – including Sustainable Food Production, Consumption & Health, and Resilient Supply Chains. N8’s strategy also focuses on areas of growth notably in Life Sciences, and in Robotics & Autonomous Systems.