“The sheer number of things we routinely use that can increase antimicrobial resistance in our various environments can’t be ignored. We must think broadly about what we use, how we use it, and where it goes when we throw, flush, or rinse it away.”

Professor Andy Barnes is the Solutions Program Lead at SAAFE CRC and a medical microbiologist with more than 30 years’ experience specialising in livestock vaccines. He first became interested in antimicrobial resistance in 1989, while undertaking a PhD focused on the mechanisms of action and resistance to fluoroquinolones – a class on antibiotics.

He’s dedicated his career to the development of veterinary health solutions for the aquaculture industry. Upon completing his PhD at the University of Edinburgh’s medical school, Andy worked for the Scottish Office of Agriculture and Fisheries Department, as well as the Moredun Research Institute. From there, he joined a small Canadian biotech company – Aqua Health – which specialised in developing vaccines for aquaculture.

Aqua Health was acquired by pharmaceutical giant Novartis in 1999. Andy worked in Novartis’ animal health division for four years before making the switch to an academic career at the University of Queensland – where he now heads up the Aquatic Animal Health Lab.

As the Solutions Program Lead at SAAFE CRC, he’s focused on identifying, creating, testing and improving interventions to mitigate AMR in agribusiness, food, water and waste systems, as well as working closely with Analytics Program Lead Professor Ricardo J. Soares Magalhães to develop best-practice guidelines for industry self-regulation and antimicrobial stewardship.

Andy is also working on a project to future-proof bacterial vaccines for the Australian trout industry to give fish farmers better preventative tools for controlling disease.