In May, the USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), in conjunction with USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), will launch Antimicrobial Use on U.S. Feedlots, 2017, a new national study focusing on antimicrobial use and stewardship practices on feedlots with a capacity of at least 50 head.

In May 2017, representatives from NASS will contact feedlots to inquire about their interest in participating in the study. NASS’s role will be to obtain producers consent for study participation.

Then in July 2017, feedlot operators who agreed to participate in the study will be contacted to schedule an in-person interview conducted by a veterinarian.

The study represents a new data collection and reporting effort for NAHMS and was first proposed in the USDA’s Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan released in 2015. This plan specifically called for enhanced monitoring of antimicrobial use in food-producing animals.

The intent is to increase understanding of antimicrobial use and stewardship in veterinary medicine and animal agriculture.

USDA lists four objectives for the study:

NAHMS is a statistical unit under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA). All information acquired during the Antimicrobial Use on U.S. Feedlots, 2017 study will be used for statistical purposes only and will be treated as confidential in accordance with CIPSEA guidelines. Only summary estimates based on the inference population will be reported. Data collected under CIPSEA are protected from Freedom of Information (FOIA) Requests.