Canada tightens focus on antibiotic resistance in feedlot cattle to tackle respiratory pathogens

Canada’s surveillance programme is increasingly monitoring antimicrobial use and resistance in feedlot cattle, highlighting respiratory disease pathogens to combat rising antibiotic resistance and preserve treatment efficacy.

Canada’s federal surveillance programme is sharpening its focus on antibiotic resistance in feedlot cattle, as regulators and veterinarians look beyond human gut bacteria to the pathogens that drive respiratory disease in finishing herds.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance, or CIPARS, the work now spans livestock, retail meat and human health, with the aim of tracking antimicrobial use and resistance patterns that could weaken treatment options. The feedlot component, launched in 2019, is designed to capture national estimates of drug use and resistance in finishing cattle and to follow how those measures change as veterinary practice evolves.

The programme’s beef surveillance draws deep nasal swabs from enrolled animals at arrival and again at re-handling, then tests bacteria including Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida and Histophilus somni for susceptibility to standard medicines.

CIPARS’ wider findings reinforce why the work matters. Its 2019 executive summary reported a decline in overall sales of antimicrobials for production animals, alongside a broader fall in reported use for prevention, treatment and growth promotion, without a change in herd or flock mortality. The agency says the evidence base is intended to support stewardship, policy and measures to slow the spread of resistance.