DART 2020 – Fighting antibiotic resistance for the good of both humans and animals.

German Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy (DART) 2020 is a cross-sectoral policy document at the national level for the period of 2015 - 2020. The German Federal Government presented DART originally in 2008. In 2015, the Federal Government developed DART further and readjusted the goals. The goals of DART 2020 are: 1. Strengthening the One Health approach; 2. Recognising changes in resistance at an early stage; 3. Retaining and improving therapy options; 4. Breaking chains of infection early and avoiding infections;5. Raising awareness and strengthening skills; 6. Supporting research and development.
Under the Goal 1, the key actions include: 1). Continuing the interministerial working group on antibiotic resistance to achieve overarching coordination, evaluation, and adaptation of the national approach, also taking into account the problems of resistance in sewage; 2). Supporting selected partner states in the implementation of the WHO Global Action Plan within the framework of the Global Health Security Agenda through the development of bilateral cooperations. In order to recognize changes in veterinary medicine resistance at an early stage (under Goal 2), the DART 2020 requests all monitoring measures are aimed both at protecting the health of consumers on a preventive basis and ensuring animal health. The key actions to be implemented are: Adapting the resistance monitoring of zoonotic pathogens and commensals to the new EU legislative situation; Expanding the national resistance monitoring of zoonotic pathogens and commensals to enterococci and, if necessary, other species of bacteria which can be transferred from livestock farming to humans; Extending the national resistance monitoring of animal pathogens (GERM-Vet) to other species of bacteria; etc. Under the Goal 3, in the field of veterinary medicine, the measures are set up to reduce the frequency of antibiotic treatments and the absolute quantity of antibiotics used on animals, and to reduce the use of critically important active agents. The measures are: Implementing the authorisations for more extensive rules for the use of antibiotics, especially reserve antibiotics, in animals; Continuing the antibiotic minimisation concept and preparing for the evaluation of its effectiveness in 2019; Continuing the recording of quantities of antibiotics supplied to veterinary surgeons; Calling on the issuers of the available guidelines to check these regularly to see if they need updating and to update them if necessary; Developing further legally binding requirements for the use of antibiotics in animals. For Goal 4, the DART 2020 requests that livestock farming methods must be optimised. The main measures under the Goal 5 include: Expanding the information and professional development options on the subject of antibiotic resistance; Forwarding the information and experience with the implemented measures that has been gained through the amendment to the German Medicines Act through professional development events aimed at farmers and veterinary surgeons; Continuing target group-specific measures to educate consumers and increase awareness in procedures for dealing with food; etc. Under Goal 6, in order to protect the health of consumers in the field of veterinary medicine and agriculture, measures are proposed based on the two major approaches for livestock farming to reduce the exposure of consumers to resistant bacteria and their resistance characteristics from livestock farming: 1. Reducing the occurrence of resistant bacteria in livestock farming through preventive measures to maintain the health of animal stocks without antibiotics 2. Preventing the transmission of resistant bacteria along the food chain.