UK farming asked to cut use of antibiotics by 25% by next year

The industry has already cut the use of these medicines by 40% since 2013 but Ministers want farmers to go still further. Experts are confident that farming will meet the target, but the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics  (ASOA) are sceptical about how progress is being made. 

ASOA director Coilin Nunan said:

"Farmers have been making good progress in cutting their antibiotic use, and are likely to reach the government's reduction target in advance of the 2020 deadline.

"The largest reductions have so far come in poultry and in pig production, where use was highest. Unfortunately, these reductions are not being achieved through major changes to husbandry and improvements to animal health and welfare.

"Instead, the poultry industry has increased its already very large use of non-medically important antibiotics, which are not counted in the antibiotics usage figures because they are too toxic to be used in humans. Similarly, the pig industry is using massive quantities of zinc oxide in piglet feed, to control post-weaning diarrhoea.

"The use of zinc oxide is known to increase resistance to medically important antibiotics, and the EU is going to ban its use in pig feed in 2022 because it's environmentally damaging. There is also some evidence that the poultry industry's use of non-medically important antibiotics could be environmentally damaging and may even increase resistance to medically important antibiotics.

"A further major concern is the government's refusal to commit to implementing an EU ban on preventative mass medication with antibiotics. The ban will come into force in the EU in 2022, after Brexit. If the UK allows preventative mass medication to continue, it could end up with some of the weakest regulatory standards in Europe, which raises questions about the kind of trade deals we will be seeking with non-EU countries that often use much higher levels of antibiotics in farming."

 

If you would like to take action to reduce the use of antibiotics in farming, you could write to your MP asking them to attend the report stage of the Agriculture Bill (expected end of Jan/February 2019) and put their names to amendments 43 and 44, which have been tabled by Caroline Lucas MP. These refer to public health and the reduction of antibiotic use in farming.