About the Minnesota One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Collaborative (MOHASC)

• One Health Minnesota Antibiotic Stewardship Five-Year Strategic Plan, 2016 (PDF)
• 2019: Summary of Progress and Next Steps (PDF)
  2019 Meeting of Technical Working Groups, February 5, 2019
• 2018: Summary of Progress and Next Steps (PDF)
  2018 Meeting of Technical Working Groups, January 11, 2018
• 2016: Summary of Progress and Next Steps (PDF)
  2016 Meeting of Technical Working Groups, December 9, 2016
• Minnesota One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Collaborative Year One Activity Summary (PDF)
  A summary of the Minnesota One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Collaborative's Year One (July 1, 2016–June 30, 2017) successes and next steps.

One Health is the understanding that the health of humans, animals, and the environment is connected. Working across human, animal, and environmental health can help identify solutions that can improve the health of all.

Yes. Pets can get infections just like people, and sometimes they are resistant to antibiotics typically used to treat them. As in health care, using antibiotics appropriately in veterinary medicine is important to prevent resistant infections.

• Minnesota Fact Sheet: Antibiotics and Your Pets: What You Should Know (PDF)

When an animal being raised for meat or milk is treated with antibiotics, farmers follow federal guidelines on how long they must keep that animal’s products out of the food supply. Milk and meat also undergo federal and/or state testing to ensure it meets antibiotic safety guidelines.

• Minnesota Fact Sheet: The Truth About: Milk and Antibiotics (PDF)
• Minnesota Fact Sheet: The Truth About: Meat and Antibiotics (PDF)

Just like people, animals sometimes get infections that need to be treated with antibiotics. Both pets and animals raised for food can become sick with respiratory, gastrointestinal, reproductive, and other bacterial infections. Veterinarians are responsible for prescribing antibiotics if necessary, and for choosing them appropriately.

People can be exposed to bacteria by handling or eating raw or undercooked milk or meat, by touching or caring for animals, or by coming into contact with stool or contaminated bedding from animals.

• Zoonotic Diseases: Disease Transmitted from Animals to Humans

Most drugs enter the environment after use in human and animal health. For example:

• When a person or animal is given an antibiotic, not all of the medication is used up inside the body, and some is released in urine and/or stool.
• Unused antibiotics are sometimes thrown into landfills or flushed down drains or toilets.
• Manure-based fertilizers used on crop fields might contain antibiotics that can enter waterways.
• Waste products from some industrial processes, like antibiotic production and ethanol production, can contribute to environmental antibiotic contamination.
• Minnesota Fact Sheet: Antibiotics and the Environment: What You Should Know (PDF)

Take unused medications to a collection box. These collection sites do not charge any disposal fees. They accept all medicines from households, including prescription, over-the-counter, and pet medicines. These collection boxes are found at pharmacies and law enforcement facilities. If a collection site is not available, incineration at a permitted Waste-to-Energy facility is the best method for destruction. If you know your garbage goes into an incinerator, you can safely dispose of medications through that route. If your garbage goes to a landfill, the better option is to purchase a mail-back envelope from your local pharmacy.

• MPCA: Dispose of Unwanted Medications

No! Medications and other chemicals end up in our natural environment, including lakes and streams, because they leak out of landfills and septic systems. Do not throw unused medications in the trash. Do not flush unused medications down the toilet or sink drain. You can bring unused medications to a take-back box at a law enforcement office or pharmacy in your area.

• MPCA: Don't flush medicines down the drain