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GLOBVAC-Global helse- og vaksin.forskn

Interventions for improved knowledge and awareness of antimicrobial resistance using a One Health approach in Tanzania

Alternative title: Tiltak for økt kunnskap og bevissthet om antibiotikaresistens ved bruk av et en helse perspektiv i Tanzania.

Awarded: NOK 15.0 mill.

This four-year project aims at reducing the AMR in Tanzania from a OneHealth perspective. The proposed plans are to perform interventions such as awareness-raising campaigns, develop and distribute training materials as well as perform surveillance activities in particular focusing on specific critical resistances in some gram-negative bacteria across the poultry food chain, the environment, and humans. The surveillance activities will include the estimation of antimicrobial usage, the occurrence of resistance, resistance genes, and drug residues. Interviews and questionnaires will be performed to envisage how it might be possible to improve the way antibiotics are used today. The research will be performed in an urban and a rural region of Tanzania. The consortium is led by the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Norway and constitutes of partners from the Sokoine University of Agriculture, the Tanzanian Veterinary Laboratory Agency, the Sankt Francis University of Health and Allied Sciences, the Livestock Training Agency, the Tanzania Farmer Association from Tanzania, the Roskilde university from Denmark and the Norwegian Church Aid.

This ambitious, trans-disciplinary One Health project, with partners from Tanzania, Denmark and Norway, aims to strengthen capacities for testing and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria isolated from poultry, humans and the environment and of antimicrobial usage (AMU) in the poultry production chain, in Tanzania. It will generate new and fundamentally important knowledge on the occurrence and characteristics of AMR and AMU in poultry production, an increasingly important food chain for achievement of food security in Tanzania and other Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). The project also seeks to describe the existing knowledge and awareness of AMR and AMU among policymakers, decision makers and in civil society to inform interventions that can influence policy, practice and implementation of the national action plan to control AMR and AMU. The project unites actors from government institutions, civil society and universities belonging to the fields of public health, animal health and environmental sectors. By bringing these partners together in a collaborative One Health project, encouraging methodological harmonization, data sharing and communication, the project will ultimately help strengthen the national capacity of Tanzania for One Health action. This will not only benefit the ability of Tanzania to control AMR and AMU, but also other zoonotic pathogens including neglected zoonotic diseases.

Funding scheme:

GLOBVAC-Global helse- og vaksin.forskn