The innovative and purpose-built veterinary antimicrobials sales reporting system.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the major public health threats of our time. Human activities across the One Health spectrum, such as the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials, can accelerate the resistance threat. A variety of antimicrobials used in veterinary medicine are also important in human medicine. As part of Canada's commitment to address AMR and antimicrobial use (AMU), and to align with international best practices aimed to minimize the impacts of AMR and preserve the effectiveness of existing antimicrobials, regulatory controls and enhanced surveillance initiatives have been implemented in veterinary medicine and animal health to improve intelligence on the quantities of antimicrobials available for use in animals. These efforts include the implementation of the national Veterinary Antimicrobial Sales Reporting (VASR) system in Canada, in 2018. The focus of this article is to describe the VASR data collection system and platform. Methods: A custom-built data collection and analytical system was developed to enhance understanding of the volume of antimicrobials available for use in animals and contribute to the broader surveillance of trends in AMU and AMR in an effort to support stewardship. Partners from Health Canada's Veterinary Drugs Directorate, the Public Health Agency of Canada's Centre for Food-borne, Environmental and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and the Canadian Network for Public Health Intelligence worked together to envision, develop, and implement the national-scale, purpose-built technological intervention, the VASR system. Results: The VASR surveillance system provides a robust data collection and analytical informatics platform to improve intelligence on antimicrobial sales available for veterinary use in Canada. Conclusion: An innovative, purpose-built national antimicrobial sales reporting system was developed. This web-based platform is effective for data submission by the participants and facilitates analysis to provide a comprehensive picture of medically important antimicrobials available for use in animals in Canada, thereby supporting AMR and AMU surveillance and stewardship.