Veterinary Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (VetCAST)

• To establish a committee of veterinary scientists that will cooperate with European and international professionals in veterinary medicine, and with organisations and agencies like the European Medicines Agency (EMA) the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI);
• To develop science-based antimicrobial breakpoints specific to the veterinary field;
• To harmonize veterinary antimicrobial susceptibility testing in the Europe;
• To provide education on antimicrobial susceptibility testing, antimicrobial therapy and PK/PD principles and modelling for veterinary antimicrobial agents;
• To ensure that antimicrobial susceptibility testing protocols and interpretive criteria are freely accessible online through the EUCAST website.

The vision of VetCAST is to optimize animal health globally by supporting precise, evidence-based antimicrobial therapy across animal species.
The mission of VetCAST is to propose and publish veterinary clinical breakpoints based on analysis and discussion of relevant PK, PD and clinical outcome data.

In order to successfully fulfill the vision and mission, the strategy of VetCAST is to:

• Primarily focus on antimicrobials that are used for first line treatment in animals in the EU, that belong to categories C and D of the AMEG classification, and for which internationally-recognized clinical breakpoints are lacking or are considered inappropriate for the European situation/context. 
• Obtain raw PK, PD and clinical data for the analyses from targeted research projects, published literature, databases, and collaborators in academia and industry
• Analyse such raw data to generate the cutoffs required to establish clinical breakpoints, namely:
  - ECOFFs
  - PK/PD cutoffs
  - Clinical cutoffs (when possible)
• Establish, by consensus, clinical breakpoints for antimicrobials, independently of partners having a financial interest in those compounds
• Publish and actively disseminate breakpoints and supportive documents (e.g. protocols and rationale documents) free of charge on the EUCAST homepage
• Openly collaborate with other breakpoint-setting committees such as CLSI in order to merge forces and expertise, and to work towards global harmonization of AST of veterinary pathogens
• Provide scientific advice to the European Medicines Agency on matters related to AST, antimicrobial spectrum, PK and PD properties of antimicrobial agents, and potential implications of dosage regimens
• Educate veterinary pharmacologists, microbiologists and clinicians on the need for, development of, and implementation of veterinary breakpoints.