Irresponsible use of antibiotics in livestock farming is killing people and must stop

In response to Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement of a new expert review of the antibiotic resistance crisis, the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics says the urgent reduction of antibiotic use in farming must become government policy. Just under half of all antibiotics used in the UK are given to farm animals for treating or preventing the diseases caused by intensive farming.
 
Alison Craig, Campaign Manager of the Alliance says: “Although we welcome the plan to review the global over-use of antibiotics in the Prime Minister's announcement, this won't save lives. He needs to take action: to ban or phase out the routine preventative use of antibiotics on farms.” 
 
The government has published a figure for mortality from antibiotic resistance: 5,000 deaths per year, in England, from resistant E.coli bacteria. Farm antibiotic use is contributing significantly to this problem and scientists are warning that "a large proportion of resistant E. coli isolates causing blood stream infections in people may be derived from food sources". [note 1] 
 
The Alliance is calling for the government to publish the total annual death toll caused by all antibiotic-resistant strains.
 
Dr Ron Daniels, Consultant in Critical Care at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, says: 

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Contacts

For media enquiries please contact the Compassion in World Farming press office: Lara Richardson, Media Manager: 07814 038196 or 01483 521995

• Alison Craig, Campaign Manager, Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics: 07709 730561 
• Coilin Nunan, Scientific Advisor, Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics: 07786 925713
• Peter Melchett, Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics: 07740 951066
• Emma Slawinski, Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics: 07708 558612
• Kath Dalmeny, Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics: 0203 5596 777
• Dr Ron Daniels, Consultant in Critical Care at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust; Chair: UK Sepsis Trust; CEO: Global Sepsis Alliance 07980 608216

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Notes to editors

The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is an alliance of health, medical, environmental and animal welfare groups working to stop the over-use of antibiotics in animal farming. It was founded by the Soil Association, Compassion in World Farming, and Sustain in 2009, and is supported by the Jeremy Coller Foundation. Its vision is a world in which human and animal health and well-being are protected by food and farming systems that do not rely routinely on antibiotics and related drugs.
 
In the Netherlands, total farm antibiotic use has fallen by 56% between 2007 and 2012. The farm use of the critically important modern cephalosporins fell by 94% in 2012 compared with 2011, and the use of the fluoroquinolones fell by 45% in the same year.
 
Parliamentary Question reply, Hansard, 9th April 2014

• Zac Goldsmith MP: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2014,Official Report, columns 779-80W, on death bacterial diseases, if he will make it his policy to collect and publish data on (a) how many NHS patients have died due to antibiotic resistance and (b) which specific pathogens or drug resistant strains of infection caused such deaths. [195017]
• Dr Poulter: Although information on deaths associated with specific antibiotic resistant infections is not currently available from routine data sources, the Department is exploring options for producing better and more reliable surveillance. These options include the linking of death registration with resistance-specific surveillance datasets on healthcare associated infections. We understand that the first set of mortality data, covering methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and C.difficile infection, should be made available by Public Health England, towards the end of the year.

Note 1: Vieira et al. 2011. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21883007