The fourth OIE annual report on the use of antimicrobial agents intended for use in animals provides the global use of antimicrobial agents adjusted for animal biomass for 2016, and interprets the overall findings of the fourth annual data collection on the use of antimicrobial agents in animals, providing a global and regional analysis.

In the fourth round of data collection, countries were asked to provide information on the barriers faced in reporting quantities of antimicrobials intended for use in animals. Twenty-nine countries (out of 153) reported primarily a lack of regulatory framework, human resource constraints and lack of information technology (IT) tools to collect the data, perform calculations and analyse the antimicrobial quantities. Ten of these countries (10 out of 29; 34%) confirmed that actions will be undertaken in the near future to facilitate their reporting of quantities of antimicrobials to the OIE.