The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics has called on Agriculture Minister David Heath MP to back a ban the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in poultry production to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance in campylobacter and other infections in humans. Calls from the Alliance, which numbers the Soil Association and Compassion in World Farming amongst its members, coincide with European Antibiotics Awareness Day, which takes place on Sunday (18th November).

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The antibiotics are widely sold as Baytril. The alliance said a ban would bring the UK into line with the US, where the Food and Drug Administration stopped the use of these antibiotics in poultry in 2005, over fears of increasing antibiotic resistance in campylobacter, the most significant cause of food poisoning. Whilst the EU is tightening its regulations on antibiotics, only Denmark and Finland have curtailed the use of fluoroquinolones in poultry.

The Danish government has urged other European states to adopt its ‘one health’ approach and introduce stricter regulation on antibiotics use. Danish surveillance institutions have suggested EU policy is undermining the country’s own efforts to tackle antibiotic resistance; the Danish approach treats human, animal and environmental health as part of an interconnected whole.  

A report from European Medicines Agency, published earlier this year, raised concerns over the use of fluoroquinolone in poultry production in 18 EU member states. Although the antibiotic is classified as “critically important in human medicine” by the World Health Organization, the alliance said there are concerns over the potential impacts of ‘whole-flock’ treatment using the drug.

The Soil Association said, “When fluoroquinolones were first licensed for use in poultry in the UK in 1993, there was no known resistance in campylobacter from people who had not been treated with the antibiotics, but in the UK, by 2007, 46 percent of the campylobacter food poisoning cases caused by the most common strain were resistant.”

The use of Fluoroquinolones, one of only two types of antibiotic used to treat campylobacter, has risen by 70 percent in UK farming over the past decade, according to figures from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.

Soil Association Policy Advisor Richard Young, who wrote to the Farming Minister on Friday, said, “Since it is clear that voluntary action by the industry has been ineffective in reducing fluoroquinolone use, we now call upon you to work with the European Commission and other Member States to introduce new legislation to prohibit the use of these critically important antibiotics in poultry production, and ensure they are only used in other farm animal species in strictly controlled situations.”

The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is campaigning for a Europe-wide ban on the drugs, with the exception of cases where their use would save animals’ lives.  

Although the NFU purportedly backs the European Antibiotics Awareness week, which aims to educate on the misuse of antibiotics, the Union said in a joint statement with the British Poultry Council that "The Poultry Industry is actively promoting Antibiotic Stewardship through continuous review of usage of all antibiotics in poultry flocks and their prescription only on the basis of a veterinary risk assessment of need and sensitivity testing to determine the effectiveness of the selected antibiotic.

"While the poultry industry agrees with the overall objective of the Alliance to promote responsible use and to use the newer classes of antibiotics only when necessary, it does not agree with an outright ban on fluoroquinolones as these medicines are sometimes needed to treat particular infections that damage the health and welfare of birds just as in humans."

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