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NOAH clarifies critically important antibiotics
Antibiotics
"All classes of antibiotics, whether critically important or not, should be used responsibly" - Donal Murphy, NOAH.
Document divides antimicrobials into risk categories

A document to clarify which antibiotics should be considered as critically important has been published by the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH).

The document comes after an assessment by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and aims to clear up any confusion about which antibiotics should be considered in this group.

Carried out by the Antimicrobial Advice Ad Hoc Expert Group (AMEG), the work has resulted in the further categorisation of critically important antibiotics (CIAs) into risk categories.

Category one contains antimicrobials that are considered a low or limited risk to public health. It includes macrolides, certain penicillins and tetracyclines. NOAH states that these ‘should be used with current responsible use practices to keep their risk low’.

Category two contains antimicrobials that are considered a high risk to public health. This includes fluroquinolones, 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins and colistin. NOAH adds that these antimicrobials ‘should only be used when there are no alternative antimicrobials authorised for the respected target species and indication’.

“NOAH believes the classification and use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine should be driven and guided by the regulators, who are independent and make science based decisions and recommendations,” said Donal Murphy, head of technical and regulatory affairs at NOAH.

“Of course, all classes of antibiotics, whether critically important or not, should be used responsibly and guided by the principle outlined by the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) who state they should be used ‘as little as possible but as much as necessary’.

“The use of these important products in this manner can ensure that the availability and efficacy of antibiotics can be maintained to ensure animal health and welfare in the future,” he adds.

To view the document and other NOAH briefing documents on antibiotics visit noah.co.uk.

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RCVS Knowledge appoints Veterinary Evidence editor-in-chief

News Story 1
 RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence.

A world-renowned expert in evidence-based veterinary medicine, Prof Cockcroft will lead the strategic development and editorial quality of the open-access journal. He was previously in the role from 2017-2020.

Katie Mantell, CEO of RCVS Knowledge, said: "We are excited about the extensive knowledge of evidence-based veterinary medicine and clinical veterinary research that Peter brings, and we look forward to working with him over this next phase of the journal's development." 

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News Shorts
CVS Group hit by cyber attack

CVS Group, which owns more than 450 veterinary practices in the UK, has been hit by a cyber attack.

In a statement, the group said the incident involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. As soon as the attack was discovered, the group took its IT systems temporarily offline, causing 'considerable operational disruption'.

It has warned that the security steps taken and ongoing plans to move its operational systems and IT infrastructure to the Cloud are likely to have an ongoing impact over a number of weeks.

Due to the risk that personal information was accessed, CVS has informed the Information Commissioner's Office. The company is working with third party consultants to investigate the incident.