Project to reduce antibiotic resistance in poultry

Bundesminister Schmidt during the official handover of the funding documents for the EsRam project [Photo: BMEL/ Photothek/ Thomas Koehler]

The German Federal Ministry of Nutrition and Agriculture (BMEL) is funding a collaborative research project to minimise antibiotic resistant pathogens in key stages of the poultry production chain.

The project ‘Development of Reduction Measures for Antibiotic-resistant Pathogens in Poultry (EsRAM)’ will receive €2.46 million over a 3-year period. It’s focus will be on poultry meat with a reduced prevalence of antibiotic resistant pathogens, particularly ESBL-producing enterobacteria and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Human and veterinary medicine working hand in hand

The German Federal Minister of Nutrition and Agriculture Christian Schmidt: “We will only be able to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance if human and veterinary medicine work hand in hand. With the 16th amendment of the Medicinal Products Act (Arzneimittelgesetz), Germany already established a system for minimising the use of antibiotics in livestock production. A further important building block to avoid antibiotic resistance is research. That is why this ministry is investing in the development of specific measures and products that show promise for reducing the emergence and transfer of antibiotic-resistance in poultry production.”

Project collaborators

Professor Uwe Rösler, Director of the Institute of Animal and Environmental Hygiene, will coordinate the partners in the ‘EsRAM’ project: The Institute of Poultry Diseases, the Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, the Institute of Food Hygiene and the Institute of Animal Nutrition, all affiliated to the Free University of Berlin. The Institute of Animal Hygiene and Infection Diseases at the Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, the Clinic for Birds and Reptiles at the University of Leipzig, the Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering in Potsdam, the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute in Jena and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin.

The industry partners are: EW Nutrition GmbH, the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry (Zentralverband der Deutschen Geflügelwirtschaft e. V.) and Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Research GmbH.