The Next Pandemic: Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a complex emergent problem that should be addressed from a system thinking point of view. It is a true public health and veterinary medicine crisis, that if not addressed on a global basis it has the potential to achieve pandemic dimensions.
The only way by which the overuse of antibiotic can be brought under control is by strong local, national and global leadership and education. In turn, leaders must have a holistic view and embrace the One Health collaborative frame work.
In the US and other first world countries animal agriculture is playing an important role controlling and improving the use of antibiotics in animal production systems. However in many lower income countries the use of antibiotics still replace good husbandry practices, therefore there is much work and investment to do in order to bring antibiotic use under control.
In the companion animal sector in the US, where access to medically important antibiotics is common and there is a lack of a regulatory framework, there is room for much improvement in using critically important antibiotics judiciously.
Antibiotics are an essential scarce resource that is critically important for the treatment of bacterial infections in animals, in order to preserve antibiotics as veterinarians we must use them judiciously.