The group includes representatives from several Royal Colleges, leading UK universities and medical institutes, as well as scientists from Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, the United States and Australia. All express concern that efforts to reduce the "dangerous overuse of antibiotics in medicine" should not be undermined by lack of action on use of antibiotics in farming.
Coordinated by the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, the scientists expressed their concern in a letter published today in The Telegraph newspaper, in advance of an important vote in the European Parliament on whether Europe should introduce a ban.
The letter reads as follows:
"The dangerous overuse of antibiotics in human medicine and the rise of antibiotic resistance are now firmly on the global agenda, but we need greater political action against the overuse of antibiotics in farming."
"Farm animals account for almost two thirds of all antibiotics used in 26 European countries. About 90 per cent of farm antibiotic use within Europe is for group treatments, often where the animals are entirely healthy. Bacteria resistant to colistin, a last-resort antibiotic, have been found in farm animals and people in several European, Asian and African countries. This is the latest sign that current veterinary prescribing practices can’t continue."
"The revision of the EU Veterinary Medicinal Products legislation provides an opportunity for progress towards more responsible use. The farmers’ unions of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden recently called on their governments to propose an EU ban on routine, purely preventative treatment of groups of animals where no disease has been diagnosed in any of the animals. We urge EU governments, the European Parliament and the European Commission to support and implement such a ban."
Baroness Hollins
Chairman, British Medical Association Board of Science
Professor Tim Walsh
Cardiff University
Dr Jeremy Farrar
Director, Wellcome Trust
Shirley Cramer
CEO, Royal Society of Public Health
Babulal Sethia
President, Royal Society of Medicine
Dr Clifford Mann
President, Royal College of Emergency Medicine
Professor Peter Piot
Director, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Professor Jane Dacre
President, Royal College of Physicians
Professor Michael Dixon
Chairman, College of Medicine
Professor Barry Cookson
University College London
Dr Alex O’Neill
University of Leeds
Dr Asha Kasliwal
Vice President, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare
Professor Neena Modi
President, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Vilma Gilis
President, Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists
Dr David McCoy
Queen Mary University
Dr Ron Daniels
Chief Executive, UK Sepsis Trust
Dr William Gaze
University of Exeter Medical School
Professor Derek Bell
President, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Professor James P O’Gara
Head of Microbiology, National University of Ireland
Professor Murat Akova
President, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
Tim Reed
Executive Director, Health Action International
Carolyn Whitten
Executive Director, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Europe
Nina Renshaw
Secretary General, European Public Health Alliance
Dr Anna Zorzet
Coordinator, ReAct Europe
Dr Ton Nicolai
Coordinator and Spokesman, EUROCAM
Thomas Breitkreuz
President, International Federation of Anthroposophic Medical Associations
Professor Jan Kluytmans
Amphia Hospital, Breda, The Netherlands
Professor Dick Heederik
Division Head, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Division Environmental Epidemiology, The Netherlands
Dr Dik J Mevius
Head, Netherlands National Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance in Animals, Central Veterinary Institute
Professor Jaap A Wagenaar
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Dr Torkel Ekman
Deputy Dean, Vice Chairman of the Faculty Board, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Thomas Svensson
Acting Divisional Director for District Veterinarians, Swedish Board of Agriculture
Dr Jenny Lundstrom
Guest researcher, ReAct Sweden
Professor Jorgen Schlundt
Nanyang Technological University
Professor Frank Møller Aarestrup
Head of Research Group, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark
Professor Anders Folkesson
Technical University of Denmark
Associate Professor DI Hans-Petr Hutter
Associate Head, Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University Vienna
Lance B Price
Director, Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, United States
Meredith Basey
Director, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines North America, United States
Shefali Sharma
Director of Agricultural Commodities and Globalization Initiatives, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, United States
David Wallinga
Senior Health Officer, Natural Resources Defence Council, United States
Dr Stuart B Levy
Director, Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance, United States
Greg Filice
Chief, Infectious Disease Section, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States
Professor James R Johnson
University of Minnesota, United States
Dr Gudrun Illmanova
Senior researcher, Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic
Dr Robert Zajícek
Head, Prague Burn Centre, Teaching Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady, Prague, Czech Republic
Associate Professor Marek Špinka
Head of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic
Dr Ivana Grossová
Prague Burn Centre, Teaching Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady, Prague, Czech Republic
Dr Miloš Kravciv
Medical House, Czech Republic
Professor Peter Collignon
Australian National University
Save Our Antibiotics: The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is a coalition of health, medical, environmental and animal welfare groups campaigning to stop the overuse of antibiotics in animal farming.
