2024 Veterinary Antimicrobial Sales Highlights Report

Working towards the preservation of effective antimicrobials for humans and animals

Context

Starting in 2018, the Food and Drug Regulations require manufacturers, importers and compounders to report annual sales of List A ingredients (Health Canada's Category I, II, III and Uncategorized Medically Important Antimicrobials) intended for use in animals. To meet this requirement, the Public Health Agency of Canada (Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance) and Health Canada (Veterinary Drugs Directorate) designed and developed the online reporting tool, the Veterinary Antimicrobial Sales Reporting (VASR) system.

The VASR system data provides a comprehensive picture of medically important antimicrobials sold for veterinary use in Canada, supports our overall antimicrobial resistance surveillance program and can be used to promote stewardship. Antimicrobials have been grouped according to their importance to human medicine. This report reflects our integration, analysis and interpretation of submitted data. Trends in sales of antimicrobials may differ from trends in actual antimicrobial use for many reasons (e.g., not all antimicrobials sold are used within a calendar year) and data in this report where possible, should be considered along with end-user information on antimicrobial use and resistance. Unless specified, this document describes sales reported by manufacturers and importers and excludes compounders, to avoid double counting sales.

For trends across years, it is important to note that the first two years of data collection (2018 and 2019) represented an overlap with the time of regulatory and policy changes implemented by Health Canada to increase oversight and promote the responsible use of antimicrobials in animals.

Where sales are reported by fewer than three companies, the quantities are considered confidential and cannot be reported, to prevent identification of individual companies' sales volumes.

What's new

For the first time in the Highlights Report, provincial sales of antimicrobials are adjusted by estimates of animal biomass (number and weight of animals) specific to each province.

Interactive data

The VASR data are available online as Interactive Data Visualizations. These visualizations include additional information and are updated regularly and therefore may differ from published reports.

Key findings

Information on antimicrobials of importance to human medicine sold for use in animals

Overall, there has been a 17% decrease in the total kilograms (kg) of antimicrobials sold for use in all animals since 2018. When accounting for the number of animals and their weights (mg/kg biomass), there was a 19% decrease in the quantity of antimicrobials sold for use in animals in this time period.

Between 2023 and 2024, overall sales of antimicrobials for all animals decreased by 6% in kilograms (59,506 kg) and by 5% in mg/kg biomass (Table 1). When we look at production animals (which includes food-producing animals and horses), there was a 6% decrease in the quantity of antimicrobials sold in mg/kg biomass in 2024 relative to 2023. For cats and dogs, there was a 7% increase in the quantity of antimicrobials sold in mg/kg biomass across the same time period.

In 2024, manufacturers accounted for 92% of all sales of medically important antimicrobials. Compounders represented 5% of sales, while importers accounted for 4%. In 2023, the distribution of sales was 89% by manufacturers, 6% by compounders and 6% by importers.

Top classes of antimicrobials sold by manufacturers in 2024 were tetracyclines, macrolides, bacitracins, penicillins and lincosamides. The top antimicrobial classes sold by importers were sulfonamides (62% of total sales by importers) and penicillins (20% of total sales by importers). Antimicrobial classes that had the largest increase in sales (kg) by both manufacturers and importers between 2023 and 2024 were the diaminopyrimidines and the diaminopyrimidine-sulfonamide combinations.

In 2024, the distribution of total sales (by weight in kg) for use in animals by Category of Importance to Human Medicine was:

• Category I (very high importance): less than 1% of total sales (consistent with previous years)
• Category II (high importance): 31% of total sales (increased from 29% in 2023)
• Category III (medium importance): 66% of total sales (decreased from 68% in 2023)
• Uncategorized Medically Important: 2% of total sales (consistent with previous years)

In 2024, relative to 2023, the quantity of antimicrobials sold for use in animals changed as follows:

• Category I (very high importance): increased by 2% (from 6,705 kg to 6,824 kg)
• Category II (high importance): decreased by 2% (from 287,590 kg to 283,125 kg)
• Category III (medium importance): decreased by 8% (from 661,829 kg to 606,215 kg)
• Uncategorized Medically Important: increased by 2% (from 20,659 kg to 21,013 kg)

Between 2020 and 2024, the quantity of Category I antimicrobials sold for use in all animals increased overall by 21% in kilograms (from 5,618 kg to 6,824 kg) and by 23% after adjusting for animal biomass.

In 2024, reporting by compounders represented 5% of the total kilograms of antimicrobials sold. The total kilograms of antimicrobials sold by compounders in 2024 was 44,096 kg. Most antimicrobials sold by compounders were Category II antimicrobials (97% of kg sold). The top classes reported by compounders were diaminopyrimidine-sulfonamide combinations and penicillins. In 2024, 82% of the total kilograms estimated to be sold by compounders were for use in pigs.

Animal species information

Similar to 2023, when measured in kilograms, the bulk of antimicrobials sold were intended for use in pigs (477,816 kg), beef cattle (243,028 kg) and poultry (105,325 kg). After adjusting for biomass, unlike 2023, most antimicrobials were sold for use in aquaculture (221.9 mg/kg biomass), followed by pigs (139.5 mg/kg biomass), veal calves (114.0 mg/kg biomass), beef cattle (56.5 mg/kg biomass), cats and dogs (52.9 mg/kg biomass), poultry (48.1 mg/kg biomass) and dairy cattle (28.5 mg/kg biomass).

In 2024, relative to 2023, the quantity of antimicrobials sold changed as follows:

• Aquaculture: increase of 226% in both kg and mg/kg biomass^{Footnote 1}
• Pigs: increase of 6% in both kg and mg/kg biomass
• Veal calves: increase of 24% in kg and 31% mg/kg biomass
• Beef cattle: decrease of 15% in kg and 14% in mg/kg biomass
• Cats and dogs: increase of 7% in both kg and mg/kg biomass
• Poultry: decrease of 26% in kg and 29% in mg/kg biomass
• Dairy cattle: decrease of 5% in kg and mg/kg biomass
• Small ruminants: decrease of 15% in kg and 14% in mg/kg biomass
• Horses: increase of 29% in both kg and mg/kg biomass

Between 2023 and 2024, estimated Category I antimicrobial sales in:

• Pigs were stable around 420 kg and 0.12 mg/kg biomass
• Beef cattle increased in kg from approximately 1,600 to 1,800 and in mg/kg biomass from 0.37 to 0.42
• Dairy cattle increased^{Footnote 2}
• Cats and dogs were stable around 3,400 kg and 22.5 mg/kg biomass

Category I sales were not reported in poultry, aquaculture, horses and veal calves in 2023 or 2024:

• Prior to 2023, a small quantity of Category I sales were reported for use in poultry in 2018, and for use in horses in 2020 and 2021
• Sales of Category I antimicrobials have never been reported by manufacturers and importers for use in veal calves or aquaculture

Information on route of administration

Since 2018, the majority of sales by route of administration (about 90%) were intended for use via feed or water. In 2024, the overall breakdown of sales by route of administration was:

• Feed (premix) (74%)
• Water (16%)
• Injection (5%)
• Other routes (including topical, ophthalmic, otic and intrauterine) (4%)
• Other oral (for individual administration) (1%)
• Intramammary (<1%)

Overall, since 2020, sales for use in feed (in kg) decreased by 13%, sales for use in water decreased by 23%, sales for use by injection increased by 13%, sales for intramammary use decreased by 1%, sales for other oral use decreased by 5% and sales for other routes decreased by 5%.

Regional information

The largest quantity of antimicrobials sold in 2024 for use in animals (in kg) by manufacturers and importers were reported to be in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and Manitoba. After adjusting for animal biomass, Ontario had the highest quantity of sales, followed by Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.

Compared to 2023, sales decreased in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Saskatchewan, and increased in Manitoba, British Columbia, the Atlantic provinces and the Territories/Nunavut. In 2024, most of the quantities of antimicrobials reported by compounders to be sold for use in animals (after adjusting for biomass) were in Quebec (56%), followed by Ontario (23%) and Manitoba (11%).

There may be subsequent distribution of antimicrobials across provincial borders after being compounded, hence caution should be applied when interpreting the provincial quantities of compounded antimicrobials.