Antimicrobial resistance is one of the major challenges facing us today. Not only does it have implications for human medicine and disease control but how and when we decide to use antibiotics to treat disease in animals. The agriculture industry has come under widespread pressure to reduce and replace antibiotics in food production animals.

However, antibiotic use is widespread in small animal medicine too. One important aspect of tackling antimicrobial resistance is understanding when antibiotics are prescribed and identifying areas in which their use can be reduced. Farmers should keep detailed records of antibiotic use, but there is used to be no integrated system for collecting data associated with antibiotic use in small animals. In 2008, the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network or SAVSNET was set up by the British Small Animal Veterinary Association and the University of Liverpool. Since then SAVSNET has expanded to include over 200 veterinary practices at around 450 premises submitting anonymised information about consults they have attended.

With us to talk about SAVSNET and finding patterns in such a vast database is PhD student David Singleton.