There is a legal requirement to report antimicrobial use in livestock in Germany to a central database. The HIT database is owned by the Bavarian Ministry for the Food Chain, Agriculture and Forestry, with results published by the ‘Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit’ (BVL). It is active since July 1st 2014. The system does not cover 100% of the sectors, as selective criteria are applied: only farms with > 250 piglets / > 250 fatteners / > 20 beef calves / > 20 beef cattle / > 10.000 broilers / > 1000 fattening turkeys are included.

Animal subcategories: Both in pigs and cattle two categories are distinguished: respectively piglets <= 30 kg and fatteners > 30 kg, and fattening calves <= 8 months and fattening cattle > 8 months.

Input: Vets and farmers have equal roles in data input: they need to provide the number of treated animals, number of treatment days and the antimicrobial product used. If the vet reports, the farmer has to confirm that antimicrobials have been applied as reported. In addition, farmers need to provide the information to calculate the number of animal days at risk for treatment.

Farmers are compared to national benchmark values of TF – separate for each animal species and production group. The median value and the upper quartile are calculated and used for categorising farms. Calculation is performed twice a year, for a period of six months each.

The national values are published by BVL. Each farmer receives the half-year values and is obliged to compare their results with the national values.