AVANT successfully contributes to the Horizon Standardization Booster (HSBooster)
Antibiotic resistance: Impacts, challenges, and future prospects
Antibiotic resistance has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges of our time, threatening both human and animal health. The overuse of antibiotics in livestock in the realm of the pig farming & pork industry, has exacerbated this crisis, raising concerns about consumer food safety and environmental sustainability.
AVANT as success story of the HSBooster
In order to boost the dissemination activities of the project, RTDS Association, as Dissemination and Communication leader of the project, applied AVANT for expert services to increase and valorize project results through standardization. The main interest was to identify relevant standardization committees (TCs) and standards as well as to get support on how to contribute to standardization in the field of animal health and the reduction of antibiotic use for sustainable pig farming.
AVANT addressed the human health risk posed by excessive antimicrobial use in veterinary medicine due to the potential transfer of resistant bacteria. Focused on managing pig enteritis, a leading reason for antimicrobial use in food animals, AVANT explored various solutions, including gut microbiome modulators, innovative medicines targeting pathogens or enhancing the pig’s immune response, and feed-based preventive strategies. After pre-clinical studies that considered regulatory aspects, the most promising interventions were tested in farm trials. Mathematical modelling also played a key role in predicting how these alternatives could reduce antimicrobial use.
RTDS in collaboration with the HSB expert Rene Lindner identified the relevant standardization committees:
- CEN TC 469 Animal Health Diagnostic analyses
- CEN TC 327 Animal feeding stuffs – Methods of sampling and analysis
- ISO TC 34 Food products – SC 10 Animal feeding stuffs
- ISO TC 34 Food products – SC 17 Management systems for food safety
- ISO TC 212 Medical laboratories and in vitro diagnostic systems
- ISO TC 347 Data-driven agri-food systems
The project was encouraged to proactively engage with identified standardization committees and align project results with standardization frameworks for potential uptake. The expert recommended preparing to launch a a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) about six months before the project ends to ensure thorough integration. Continuous, constructive exchanges with the expert were beneficial and raised awareness of standardization, yet additional partner engagement was needed to fully realize AVANT’s standardization objectives.
The project actively engaged and contacted the relevant identified standardization committees and present the draft results for potential uptake. During 2025, a concrete standardization strategy, including a plan of re-approaching the identified TCs and a summary of standardization potentials deriving from the project results, will be discussed with project partners and will be set up. Potentially, a CWA could be developed out of the project results, not later than 6 months before the projects end in order to ensure that this will be carried out properly. Additionally, an alignment with activities of the ArMoR cluster will ensure a wider application and contribution to the envisaged standardization activities.
Find more information about AVANT as success story of HSBooster:
https://www.hsbooster.eu/success-stories and https://zenodo.org/records/14327971
To stay updated on the latest news about AVANT, follow us on social media.
