National antibiotic resistance control Programme for the period 2019-2021.

This Serbian National Programme for the Control of Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics (or ABR) is a document which sets out a general plan of action with the purpose of accomplishment of clearly defined ABR control objectives in the period 2019-2021. It further uses several national and international/European reference legislation and texts as listed.
The National Programme for the Control of Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotic sets out the objectives, action plan and procedures to be followed on the territory of the Republic of Serbia in order to stop the spread of resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, in both medicine and veterinary medicine sectors.
The overall goal of the Programme is to improve the health and quality of life of the population of the Republic of Serbia through the reduction of such undesired phenomena. The general objective will be achieved through the implementation of the following specific objectives: 1-Strengthening the monitoring of antibiotic resistance and providing evidence-based data on ABR; 2- Rational use of antibiotics; 3-Prevention and reduction of outbreaks and infection spread control. Recognizing the importance of the problem of ABR, the Minister of Health, in accordance with the European Union Strategy, established a special working group for the rational use of antibiotics, which supports and monitors the continuous programme for the antibiotic resistance control.
Antibiotics used to treat and prevent bacterial infections in animals belong to the same groups as those used for the treatment of humans, therefore bacteria may also be present in animals and can be resistant to the same drugs. Such bacteria can spread through food and water and contact and cause infections in people who have not taken the antibiotics. Currently, there are not many requests for testing the susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics in animal food and feed, or they are performed on a voluntary basis, given that it has not been provided as an obligation. Only the monitoring of susceptibility, or resistance to antibiotics and chemotherapeutics in bacteria of the Salmonella species in broiler chickens, laying hens, turkeys and pigs for slaughter are currently regulated. For the purpose of continuous monitoring of the susceptibility, that is, bacterial resistance to certain antibiotics, bacteria isolates are being collected and tested for the presence of resistance and multiresistance for monitoring purposes. The laboratory diagnostics system in Serbia has a network of laboratories in certain specialist and scientific institutes of veterinary medicine (a total of 12 institutes) responsible for laboratory testing and support in the implementation of epidemiological surveillance. These institutes participate and provide technical assistance for the systematic monitoring of diseases and disease diagnostics and contribute to the prevention of the onset, detection, containment and control of diseases, participate in epidemiological surveillance and perform laboratory diagnostics (bacteriological, serological, viral, parasitic, chemical, biochemical, pathological and radiological). They perform laboratory testing of safety of animal origin food and animal feed. All laboratories within the Institute have been accredited. Related systematic resistance monitoring will enable the following: 1. Noticing of ABR rates and their changes; 2. Detecting the emergence of new mechanisms of resistance and quickly reducing the spread of strains with such characteristics; 3. Comparing and establishing links between the levels of antibiotic resistance and consumption of antibiotics in veterinary medicine; 4. Monitoring the effectiveness of interventions in the control and prevention of the spread of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial drugs 5. Exchanging data on the level of antibiotic resistance with the European countries and globally.