To meet the objectives described, a series of cross-sectional surveys will be conducted to quantify the presence of antimicrobial resistance and potential risk factors related to antimicrobial consumption, management and biosecurity across Europe in a wide range of food production sectors, companion animals, wildlife and the environment. Within each participating country representative herds will be selected. In the selected herds, representative samples of animals and the environment will be collected. These will be used for analyses of resistance in relation to farm parameters. Additionally, samples of companion animals, wildlife and retail meat will be collected in specific countries.
A more intensive sampling scheme will be used in the poultry and pig production sector which allows for in depth analyses of the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in two sentinel countries (NL, DE). These sentinel studies will give insight in associations between exposure of humans and carriage for the most commonly produced animal species. In both the descriptive and in-depth studies, information about the antimicrobial consumption and other potential risk factors, related to biosecurity of hygiene, management, health, and welfare will be collected.