Sustainable control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) requires a One Health approach, as humans and animals can exchange bacteria and genetic mobile elements encoding for AMR. Early detection of newly emerging AMR in animal populations is important in case of resistance to antimicrobials of critical importance to humans. Moreover, as antimicrobial use (AMU) in animals favours AMR development in bacterial populations, the potential impact of different AMU-reducing interventions needs to be assessed. Two research consortia led by the Veterinary Medicine Faculty of Utrecht University in collaboration with Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) have been formed to develop a Blueprint for Early Warning of Antimicrobial Resistance Emergence in animals (BEWARE) and to perform a Comparative Impact Assessment of Options to Curtail Inessential Antimicrobials On-farm (CIAOCIAO). BEWARE will focus on carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in livestock (e.g. veal calves, pigs and broilers) and will include assessment of introduction risk, estimating transmission parameters, development of a metagenomics CPE assay and dynamic mathematical modelling. CIAOCIAO will quantify the impact and cost-effectiveness of biosecurity, vaccination and husbandry practices on AMU reduction in broilers, weaned piglets and veal calves using stochastic simulation modelling to show all potential outcomes of the interventions. Both BEWARE and CIAOCIAO are supported by ZonMw grants.

We are seeking 2 motivated PhD candidates willing to contribute to develop the blueprint for early warning of AMR (BEWARE) or to assess the impact of different AMU-reducing interventions (CIAOCIAO) in livestock. These projects aim to detect resistance against antimicrobials of critical importance to humans before it becomes widespread in animal populations and to provide policy makers and livestock sectors with quantitative evidence to reduce AMU on-farm and so decrease AMR at its source.

The tasks of the PhD candidate associated with the BEWARE project will include assessment of AMR introduction risk, to develop a dynamic mathematical model to simulate surveillance for early warning, to parameterize the model and apply it to test various surveillance scenarios. Furthermore, this candidate will design and analyse an in vivo experiment using broilers. The tasks of the PhD candidate associated with the CIAOCIAO project will include developing a scenario-based modelling framework to assess the impact of different biosecurity standards, vaccination schemes and husbandry practices on AMU reduction on-farm, using both existing and newly collected data, and to perform cost-effectiveness analyses. Moreover, the candidate will contribute to the development of a policy management tool to be named AMU-Lowering Estimation Tool (AMU-LET ) intended to set targets for implementing interventions with the highest AMU-reducing potential.

Most of the research will be carried out at Utrecht University, but for specific topics the PhD candidates will be temporarily stationed at the collaborating institutes of WBVR in Lelystad and at the RIVM in Bilthoven.