Advancing Agribusiness: Digital Transformation to Prevent Pathogen Resistance and Improve Food Security

The Challenge

Imagine if the medicines we rely on to fight infections simply stopped working. That is the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – bacteria and microbes mutate and evolve, becoming resistant to treatments. In agribusiness, it means animals become more susceptible to infections that are difficult or impossible to treat, and the microbes rapidly spread through food, endangering both animal and human health.

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the largest threats to Australian industries (particularly the food and agribusiness, water, and waste sectors), affecting agricultural productivity, biosecurity, food and water security, food safety, the circular economy, and the international food trade.

These industries have varying regulatory responsibilities and unique ways of operation. Hence, they collect, store, manage, and report antimicrobial resistance data in various ways, despite sharing the same challenge of antimicrobial resistance. Consequently, the underlying antimicrobial resistance data is fragmented and siloed. Being able to standardise, integrate, and provide a strong governance protocol for antimicrobial resistance in the agricultural industry is vital to safeguard our food security.  

The Response

We are supporting our agribusiness partners to build a nationwide data asset incorporating data on antimicrobial use and resistance, which will provide agribusinesses, government and the water and waste sectors with the tools they need to track and analyse how antimicrobials are used. 

This will help them to make informed decisions on how to minimise the consequences of antimicrobial resistance on Australian food security. It will also enable researchers to evaluate new and existing interventions or technologies against antimicrobial resistance to facilitate the supply of safe recycled water to the food and agribusiness sectors.

We are engaging partners for the co-design of the SAAFE Data Code. In September 2024, a collaborative workshop with the National Farmers’ Federation Data Code team brought together industry leaders and government representatives to align shared principles on best practices for data governance, a crucial step in addressing the complexities of AMR and antimicrobial use (AMU) data accessibility and utilisation.

Who Will Benefit

• Agricultural industry, livestock industries, and the communities that they support 
• Exporters 
• Researchers 
• Other industries 
• Regulators

Project Partners 

• Cooperative Research Centre for Solving Antimicrobial Resistance in Agribusiness, Food, and Environments (CRC SAAFE)
• ARDC
• The University of Queensland 
• Water Research Australia
• Hort Innovation Australia
• AUSVEG
• Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority 
• Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia 
• Curtin University
• Food Standards Australia and New Zealand

Outcomes

The project has developed:

• an analysis of the current landscape of existing data systems for antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance
• data governance protocols that outline how antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance data are shared and handled, to make sure the data are reported in a consistent way. The first edition of the AMR Data Code can be downloaded from the SAAFE website.