Are Countries Regulating Veterinary Drug Residues That Are Important to Human Health?

Are Countries Regulating Veterinary Drug Residues That Are Important to Human Health? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Are Countries Regulating Veterinary Drug Residues That Are Important to Human Health? Akinbode Okunola, Elliott Dennis, Matthew Hille This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6506349/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background One Health approach is encouraged when monitoring and regulating antimicrobials that intersect both human and animal medicine. This study develops a novel methodology to assign a “One Health Score” that quantifies how maximum residue limits for drugs set by countries for veterinary purposes align with established international standards. Methods We classify the importance of each antimicrobial drug with a maximum residue limit using criteria outlined by the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health. We then create a hierarchy of antimicrobial importance that prioritizes human health to illustrate the ranking and focus for each country, drug class, and animal species groups. This ranking is then used to develop a unique “One Health Score” that assesses each country, drug class, and animal species degree of regulatory compliance with the international standard of Codex Alimentarius. Findings: Codex, the European Union, and the United States are identified as leaders of establishing maximum residue limits to which other countries defer to. Among pairs with medical classifications, 53% fall under the pairing of Highly Important Antimicrobials (H3) for humans and Veterinary Critically Important Antimicrobials (V1) for animals. The One Health Score is non-negative for at least 50% of countries at each medical importance level. However, 21% of the countries with H3V1 MRLs are laxer than Codex. Interpretation: Drugs with a high market demand in animal agriculture are the most commonly regulated among countries. This suggests drugs used less in food animals may not be adequately regulated currently, despite, in some cases, being highly important for human health. Country officials must balance economic and health priorities when setting or modifying drug residue limits. Scientific community and society/Agriculture Biological sciences/Microbiology/Antimicrobials/Antibiotics Biological sciences/Microbiology/Antimicrobials/Antimicrobial resistance Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplementaryfilesv6.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6506349","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":453862066,"identity":"84660683-004d-4266-a728-28a5777dd999","order_by":0,"name":"Akinbode Okunola","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Nebraska–Lincoln","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Akinbode","middleName":"","lastName":"Okunola","suffix":""},{"id":453862067,"identity":"ff67790c-e000-4aba-a51c-ce477a0f5d04","order_by":1,"name":"Elliott Dennis","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA7ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACduaGA2AGiExgsAGKABk8+LQwMwK1JBjAtKQBRYjQwgDXwsBwmLAWfmbGxgMff/xh4Dvee+zBgz/nE7czMzA+eNuGW4tkM2PDwRlAWyTPnEs3SGy7nbizmYHZcC4eLQaHGRsO8wC1GNzIMZNIbLiduOEwA5s0Lx4t9nAt99+YSST8OQfSwv4bnxYDZrgtPEAtbAfAtjDj0yJxGOSXNGMeyTMgh7UlG284zNgsOeccbi387c2HP3ywkZPjO37GTPLHHzvZDcebD354U4ZbCwwgRwQopkbBKBgFo2AUUAQAbg5SyWFQGqAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Nebraska–Lincoln","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Elliott","middleName":"","lastName":"Dennis","suffix":""},{"id":453862068,"identity":"38a484e2-3ae3-4e04-b3a1-9e8d80b67a99","order_by":2,"name":"Matthew Hille","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Nebraska–Lincoln","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Matthew","middleName":"","lastName":"Hille","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-22 17:08:08","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6506349/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6506349/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":84798410,"identity":"edfc1d8f-0816-4bad-98a3-b1fe525da082","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-17 12:47:14","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1128250,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MainManuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6506349/v1_covered_ea238a31-64f3-4c41-9918-b702e8dbe9dc.pdf"},{"id":82316768,"identity":"247d737c-90f4-4ff7-91d7-9e829369df2c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-09 03:41:00","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1521819,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementaryfilesv6.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6506349/v1/422beccb9be6f4fe2af74560.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Are Countries Regulating Veterinary Drug Residues That Are Important to Human Health?","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6506349/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6506349/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003ch2\u003eBackground\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne Health approach is encouraged when monitoring and regulating antimicrobials that intersect both human and animal medicine. This study develops a novel methodology to assign a \u0026ldquo;One Health Score\u0026rdquo; that quantifies how maximum residue limits for drugs set by countries for veterinary purposes align with established international standards.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMethods\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe classify the importance of each antimicrobial drug with a maximum residue limit using criteria outlined by the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health. We then create a hierarchy of antimicrobial importance that prioritizes human health to illustrate the ranking and focus for each country, drug class, and animal species groups. This ranking is then used to develop a unique \u0026ldquo;One Health Score\u0026rdquo; that assesses each country, drug class, and animal species degree of regulatory compliance with the international standard of Codex Alimentarius.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eFindings:\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eCodex, the European Union, and the United States are identified as leaders of establishing maximum residue limits to which other countries defer to. Among pairs with medical classifications, 53% fall under the pairing of Highly Important Antimicrobials (H3) for humans and Veterinary Critically Important Antimicrobials (V1) for animals. The One Health Score is non-negative for at least 50% of countries at each medical importance level. However, 21% of the countries with H3V1 MRLs are laxer than Codex.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eInterpretation:\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eDrugs with a high market demand in animal agriculture are the most commonly regulated among countries. This suggests drugs used less in food animals may not be adequately regulated currently, despite, in some cases, being highly important for human health. Country officials must balance economic and health priorities when setting or modifying drug residue limits.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Are Countries Regulating Veterinary Drug Residues That Are Important to Human Health?","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-05-09 03:40:55","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6506349/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"5964052e-85e4-4818-96d6-db5ec30d58d1","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 9th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":48264596,"name":"Scientific community and society/Agriculture"},{"id":48264597,"name":"Biological sciences/Microbiology/Antimicrobials/Antibiotics"},{"id":48264598,"name":"Biological sciences/Microbiology/Antimicrobials/Antimicrobial resistance"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-06-17T12:39:04+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-05-09 03:40:55","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6506349","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6506349","identity":"rs-6506349","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}