ENOVAT and WSAVA join forces for antimicrobial guidance

Two major veterinary organisations have teamed up to develop and product evidence-based clinical guidelines for best-practice antimicrobial treatment in companion animals.

The European Network for Optimization of Veterinary Antimicrobial Treatment (ENOVAT) and WSAVA have joined forces, with the former having a pedigree in leading work on developing antimicrobial treatment guidelines.

Funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology fund, ENOVAT is working with the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases’ Study Group of Veterinary Microbiology on two sets of guidelines – one for canine acute diarrhoea and one for antimicrobial use in surgical prophylaxis in companion animals.

WSAVA role

Under its partnership, the WSAVA will offer feedback from its 115 association members to inform the content in the guidelines and ensure global relevance.

It will also support translation into a range of languages and produce infographics to help reinforce key information.

Luca Guardabassi, who co-chairs the WSAVA’s therapeutics guidelines group, said: “This is a very timely collaboration as it is essential to offer veterinarians evidence-based guidelines on rational antimicrobial use in companion animals.

“The WSAVA looks forward to playing a key role in disseminating the key recommendations from these documents, making them accessible and understandable to a wide audience of general practitioners on a global scale.”

Stewardship

Lisbeth Rem Jessen, chair of ENOVAT’s guidelines initiative, said: “The goal of the ENOVAT guidelines is to advance antimicrobial stewardship while providing best possible care for our patients in veterinary practice.”

She added practising vets had a crucial role in the guidelines’ success and the WSAVA collaboration would bridge the gap to end users.