Growing Forward 2 - Final Report Project II | Page 56

PHASE B: STAKEHOLDER
CONSULTATION
Discussion: Phase B
The Forum allowed for broad-based discussion by a variety of
stakeholders, all of whom are involved with food-producing
animals in Ontario. The feedback provided by the 74 Forum
attendees was rich, thoughtful and reflected the varied
backgrounds of the participants. The participants were very
engaged in the discussions, and provided extensive, informed
feedback. This feedback was utilized to re-draft the tactics in a
more fulsome and detailed manner.
As well, the participants provided extensive feedback on
potential lead organization. It became clear through the
discussions that identification of a lead organization, to ensure
execution of the tactics, was a complex matter that was beyond
the scope of this CVO Project. Subsequently, leaders from four
key veterinary organizations in the province (CVO, OMAFRA,
OVC and OVMA) have recently formed the Ontario Veterinary
Leadership Collaborative on Antimicrobial Resistance. The
Priority Initiatives and Proposed Tactics will be provided to the
Collaborative for its consideration and further guidance.
The Stakeholder Consultation Survey offered food-producing
animal veterinarians, and representatives of other stakeholder
groups, the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft tactics
associated with each of the six Priority Initiatives identified by
Ontario food-producing animal veterinarians as being those
initiatives that are most likely to be effective in addressing the
issue of developing resistance to antibiotics.
The survey was provided to over 700 individuals and groups,
and 58 responses were received. This low response rate was
not surprising given that the Stakeholder Consultation Survey
was the final confirmation step in a multi-step engagement with
respondents over a ten-month period. As such, respondents
had been approached to participate multiple times over the
College of Veterinarians of Ontario 
course of this project. Additionally, the low response may be
a reflection of the high level of acceptance of, and agreement
with, the Draft Tactics for Priority Initiatives – for Stakeholder
Consultation, lessening the motivation to provide further input.
The collected data was qualitative or descriptive only. Thus,
formal statistical analysis was not conducted on these data. As
such, it is not possible to draw firm conclusions from the data
comparing the various groups of respondents. However, by
separating veterinarians and non-veterinarians, it was possible
to subjectively visualize the responses from these two groups in
both tabular and graphical formats. Differences between the
two groups were minor, and did not appear to be meaningful.
The majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the
tactics associated with all of the Priority Initiatives were realistic,
complete, relevant, and would make a positive change to the
use of antibiotics in food-producing animals. This was true
for both veterinarians and non-veterinarians. The majority of
respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statements “In
general, I am supportive of the Initiatives and Draft Tactics” and
“I believe that the Initiatives and Draft Tactics will have a positive
impact on the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals in
Ontario.”
Upon review of the data from the Stakeholder Consultation
Survey, it was the decision of the Project Team that further
amendment of the Draft Tactics for Priority Initiatives – for
Stakeholder Consultation was not warranted. As such, this was
affirmed as the Action Agenda for Veterinary Stewardship of
Antibiotic use in Food-Producing Animals in Ontario, as shown in
Table 25 below.
Review of the written comments revealed that respondents,
while generally supportive of the tactics, did have a considerable
number of suggestions for the execution of specific tactics.
56