The Kerala Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) will carry out a month-long Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) awareness campaign as a follow-up to the AMR awareness week, which concluded on Monday. The campaign aims to spread awareness among the livestock inspectors, veterinary doctors, technical staff of the department and dairy farmers. 

The State Institute for Animal Diseases (SIAD) will prepare pamphlets to be distributed among farmers to make them aware of AMR, which is considered a major threat to public health and is tagged as a 'silent pandemic'. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial agents. Infections become difficult to treat as a result of drug resistance, increasing the risk of disease spread and causing severe illness and death.

The World AMR awareness week is a global campaign of the World Health Organisation to tackle the emergence and spread of drug-resistant pathogens. The AHD officials said that it is not advisable to administer medication to animals or birds in doses higher or lower than the dose prescribed by the doctor and cautioned against self-medication of animals. The farmers have also been advised against giving antibiotics for common viral diseases such as Foot-and-Mouth disease, Goat Plague, Swine Flu and Ranikhet disease unless there are other concurrent bacterial diseases.

Awareness classes are also being held in various districts as part of the campaign.