United Nations award presented to the UdeM's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and DSAHR

Press Release from the Faculté de médecine vétérinaire de l’Université de Montréal and DSAHR

Two Local Organizations Win Prestigious UN FAO “One Health” Award

Two local organizations have won the prestigious “One Health” award, presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). This award recognizes best practices and remarkable innovations in sustainable livestock transformation that have demonstrated a measurable impact on productivity, the environment, and animal health. It was the creation of a benchmarking tool for antibiotic use in dairy herds, developed by the Faculté de médecine vétérinaire de l’Université de Montréal and DSAHR, that earned the honors.

What is an Antibiotic Benchmarking Tool?

Benchmarking is a comparative analysis method that allows comparing a company’s performance and practices with market leaders.

In the dairy industry, knowing how their herd positions itself against peers allows producers to: compare themselves to their peers or to their own past performance and identify the types of use where they stand out from other farms. Benchmarking also allows veterinarians to identify clients with “unusual” usage patterns and to compare their own prescribing habits with those of other veterinarians.

Antibiotic resistance is a current topic, in both human and veterinary medicine. Although they are essential for maintaining the health of dairy cattle and production animals in general, their use must be rigorously monitored to ensure it is as judicious as possible and, if necessary, to identify avenues for reducing this use. The use of vaccination protocols and the application of good biosecurity practices can be part of the solution.

It was with this in mind that the team from the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Ahmad Albaaj, Dr. Simon Dufour, and Dr. Hélène Lardé) and DSAHR (Bruno Lachance, Patrice Brunette, Dr. Annie Fréchette, Dr. Marie-Ève Paradis, and Gino Vaillancourt) designed a tool allowing veterinarians, producers, and other dairy sector stakeholders to monitor and compare antibiotic use over time for a given farm or veterinary clinic.

The company DSAHR, which offers animal health management software, compiles nearly all antibiotic sales on Quebec dairy farms. With this data, it has been possible to evaluate antibiotic purchases relative to the number of animals, the type of infection, etc., and determine if the use is judicious. All of this allows the veterinarian to initiate discussions with the dairy producer and review health concepts.

In 2024, this online tool was officially integrated into a program of the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) aimed at improving antibiotic use practices on dairy farms. The program subsidizes a veterinary visit during which antibiotic use practices are examined using the benchmarking tool to identify areas for improvement.

The work was carried out thanks to a grant from the Innov’Action Agroalimentaire Program (Project Number IA 120635), a program stemming from the Growing Forward 2 agreement concluded between the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). We also thank the FASA for its participation.