Health committee  You asked a number of questions in there. I'll try to answer them. What's different from when we were trained? Yes, they had invented penicillin when I went to school, so I was familiar with it—I joke about my age as well—but I think we've learned a lot about antibiotics and antimicrobial use.

Health committee  Well, I think that's partially true. There are two parts to your question, the somatic cell count or the cell count in the milk could come from.... Infection can come from other things. It comes from trauma, bad milking machines, and a number of different indicators. Of course, in the dairy industry they look at that because when it gets too high, that milk is no longer processed into cheese and whatnot, so it is rejected.

Health committee  That may be part of it. We use antibiotics because animals get sick. In the extensive agricultural circumstances of cows out in the pasture, they get sick as well, and they need antibiotics, but the volume used is not nearly as much because you're dealing with a single individual animal.

Health committee  I don't personally like the term “over-prescribing”, but I think we have a significant amount of unnecessary use. Over-prescribing implies almost an intentional effort to put more drugs into an animal than what you might need. I think there are circumstances where we have habitually or traditionally used antibiotics because we've always done it that way.

Health committee  Thank you. I apologize for not being able to answer your question in French.

Health committee  Obviously there are different guidelines for different food-producing species because they're managed and raised differently. The point that the veterinary community is not concerned or interested is that we have some guidelines that are federal rules on prescription only, for example, that impact all species.

Health committee  There certainly will be an impact with that change. The objective of the change is to meet the goal of veterinary oversight of the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals and to make a realistic expectation that veterinarians will be engaged. The drugs are made to be prescription only; that's how that's been implemented, so that will have an impact.

Health committee  I'll start, if I may. I believe there is a risk and, as he said, antimicrobial resistance doesn't know any boundaries. If one country in the world is producing a lot of resistant superbugs, they're going to get elsewhere in the world very rapidly. I think that Canada needs to do what Canada needs to do, because that's our jurisdiction, but we also need to interact with the international community and ensure that there's a global plan to address resistance.

Health committee  I'll let Scott start with that. He's the expert.

Health committee  I think there are enough differences in the systems and in the activities of the sectors that it would be difficult to coordinate them. The human medical side has standard prescriptions that go to pharmacists, and it has a number of data collection points that are already in place.

Health committee  You are tracking for some of the same purposes. I don't know if it's a difference in.... Maybe some of the other panellists can comment, too. One of the challenges we have in animal use is getting to a common basis of what the products are. If you are treating a chicken and a cow, there is a big difference in the mass of the animal and the amount of antibiotic.

Health committee  Yes, absolutely. There's surveillance of resistance and surveillance of use. They are slightly different. We tend to lump them together. I think there is a need for both. Certainly in our workshop we were in agreement that we would like to see surveillance for a better understanding of what antimicrobials are used, where they're used, and why they're used, as opposed to the primary data we now have, which is what is being sold at the wholesale level.

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and committee. Thank you for this opportunity to present to you today on this very important topic. I am representing the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. With your indulgence—I know the time is limited—I'm going to follow my speaking notes fairly closely, for two reasons: one, to keep me on track so that I don't digress, but also for the translators, because I have a tendency to speak rather rapidly.