About VetLCLIN AMR

The VetLCLIN AMR project brings together advanced veterinary microbiology laboratory expertise and large‑scale data surveillance to better understand antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria from animal clinical infections.

The ideal combination of state-of-the-art Veterinary Microbiology Diagnostic Laboratory (VMDL) facilities and data surveillance (SAVSNET) has allowed the University of Liverpool to collaborate with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) via a National Biosurveillance Network (NBN) project surveying AMR in bacteria from companion animal clinical samples.

There is no worldwide or national consensus for the use of common methodologies in veterinary laboratories for performing and interpreting bacterial cultures from companion animal clinical specimens or for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), hampering the usefulness of these data for surveillance purposes.

Through collaboration with private veterinary microbiology laboratories across the UK, this project will work towards methodology harmonisation for bacterial culture, AST, and AMR screening. It will also generate harmonised and standardised AMR surveillance approaches and facilitate aligning AMR surveillance in the UK with methodologies proposed by the newly formed European AMR Surveillance Network in veterinary medicine (EARS-Vet).

The genomic and epidemiologic analysis built into this project will contribute to a better understanding of the molecular epidemiology of inter-species AMR transmission between humans and companion animals occurring through a shared environment. Corresponding projects under NBN are looking to collate data on AMR in bacteria from farmed animal clinical samples.