50 medics call for farm antibiotics control

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