According to the 2021’s European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC) report on sales of veterinary antimicrobial agents, the data collected for the 2010-2021 period points to a significative sales reduction in over 2/3 of the countries included. Until now, a reduction of consumption to an average 96.6 mg/PCU was achieved in a premise that the average value of 59.2 mg/PCU can be reached by 2030, urging new political strategies for the next years.

However, when exploring data from countries individually for the same decade, several shortcomings in data collection are noticed. In fact, mandatory data reporting was not on equal ground between countries, using different data aggregation strategies, and several countries in multiple years recognized underreporting values.

Access to similar tools and methodologies for data collection is crucial for all European members, especially to collect and report consistent, correct, and uniform data.

Simultaneously, some gaps are observed in PCU unit system, excluding some animals such as livestock goats and pets, and being unclear in others like in aquaculture, requiring to be revised so it helps implementing the “One Health” approach.

Preventive or mitigation actions require a standardized data system allowing trust-worthy conclusions and projections. Platforms like ESVAC database are an interesting tool which can be improved and replicated allowing the analysis of the different elements of the “One Health” approach such as human and environmental data, as well as data about resistance to antimicrobial agents.