$21.2 million announced for research on Innovative Veterinary Solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance

Together with the UK Government’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund, managed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), IDRC is pleased to announce CA$21.2 million in research funding for eleven new projects under the Innovative Veterinary Solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance (InnoVet-AMR) initiative.
The initiative responds to a need identified by the international scientific and development communities. It is supported with high-level policy processes, including the UN political declaration on AMR (2016), G7/20, the Global Health Security Agenda and Action Plan, as well as the Global Action Plans of the World Health Assembly and the World Organization for Animal Health.
The challenge
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animals is a growing problem that threatens our ability to treat bacterial infections in humans and animals. Livestock and aquaculture keepers in low and middle-income countries are highly affected by the increase in infectious disease outbreaks and the ensuing loss in livestock productivity, which ultimately endangers food security and disrupts international trade. The contamination of animal products with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria is also a risk factor for humans, animals, and the environment.
The initiative
InnoVet-AMR is funding research to develop new animal vaccines and other innovations to fight AMR in livestock and aquaculture production, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The initiative builds on the DHSC’s expertise championing innovation by supporting research and technology to improve lives and IDRC’s history as a development research funder with decades of experience building knowledge-focused cross-sector partnerships.
Through InnoVet-AMR, IDRC and DHSC aim to achieve two key objectives:
- Support research that will identify innovative veterinary solutions, including vaccines and alternative solutions, to reduce the use of antimicrobials in livestock and aquaculture operations in low and middle-income countries.
- Build effective partnerships to better coordinate the discovery, development, and sustainable delivery of innovative veterinary solutions to reduce the use of antimicrobials in livestock and aquaculture operations in low and middle-income countries.
Learn more about InnoVet-AMR's eleven new research projects:
- Novel vaccine design for preventing Streptococcus suis in swine
- Bacteriocins: a promising natural alternative to replace antibiotics in poultry production
- Using Phages for the replacement of antibiotics, and reduction of drug resistant nontyphoidal Salmonella in poultry farms in Kenya
- Investigating the use of nanobubble technology in aquaculture
- Development and commercialization of antibiotic alternatives: phages and nutraceuticals for Pakistan poultry production
- Developing a sustainable nanoparticle-based vaccine solution for broilers and layers against Escherichia coli in low and middle-income countries
- Novel approaches to identify optimal antiviral probiotics for swine industry in low-income countries
- Developing pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide into a treatment for microbial infections in fish and shrimp aquaculture
- Integrated quorum quenching strategies to reduce antimicrobial resistance in shrimp aquaculture
- Disease intervention targets for porcine Streptococcus suis infections in Vietnam
- Polyvalent vaccine for freshwater catfish (Pangasius)
Learn more about our partner, the UK Government’s Global Antimicrobial Innovation Fund, part of the Department of Health and Social Care.