One of the objectives of the project “Working Together to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance” is to promote the exchange of good practices and experiences between countries.
In the case of Argentina, it is worth highlighting and disseminating the experience of the National Health and Agrifood Quality Service of Argentina (SENASA) with its Control and Monitoring Programme in digital media.
This initiative was created in 2020 to make SENASA’s intervention and control of the electronic marketing of products of plant and animal origin effective.
To this end, the first step was to establish strategic alliances with the main e-commerce and social media platforms where the buying and selling of such products usually takes place.
In the case of Mercado Libre, a mutual collaboration agreement was signed that allows the detection, reporting and moderation of infringing content by SENASA.
Both the head of the programme, Rosina Leicht Ziegler, and the Director of Animal Health at SENASA, Ximena Melón, point out the importance of this tool to contribute to the responsible and prudent use of veterinary antimicrobials. Not only in terms of control, but also in terms of the possibility of providing official information to users on current regulations and the categories of products that can be marketed online.
Since the start of the programme, SENASA has reported and moderated more than 210,000 publications. The agency’s annual management reports show that the monitoring is working, as the number of infringing publications is decreasing considerably.
The advantages are clear: it is traceable, auditable, transparent, and 100% free of material inputs.
To strengthen the control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the Americas region, tripartite (WOAH, FAO and PAHO) is implementing the project “Working Together to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance” funded by the European Union. The seven beneficiary countries of the project are: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The objective of this project is to support the selected countries in the implementation of their National Action Plans (NAP), share experiences, advocate best practices and promote collaboration.
