Building the National Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network in Animals in Greece: A “One Health” Approach

It is widely accepted that, in order to prevent and control antimicrobial resistance (AMR), surveillance systems across human, animal and environmental sectors need to be integrated, in a One Health approach. Currently, in Europe, there are surveillance networks established only for the human and food sector and, until now, there has been no organized effort to monitor AMR in bacterial pathogens derived from diseased animals in Europe. Since 2017, efforts to fill this gap have taken place by the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance network in a veterinary medicine (EARS-Vet) initiative, included in the EU Joint Action on AMR and Healthcare-Associated Infections (EU-JAMRAI). EARS-Vet is designed to complement and integrate with existing European monitoring systems for AMR as well as constitute a European network of national monitoring systems. As Greece has no national AMR surveillance system for pathogens of animal origin currently in place, in the context of the development of EARS-Vet, an initiative took place for the organization of such a system by competent agencies and other stakeholders. In this article, the steps to organize a first AMR national surveillance network in Greece are presented and a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis is performed to present main characteristics of the approach implemented.