The German Agriculture Ministry has today announced it will review the use of antibiotics on farm animals and may introduce new rules further restricting their use. Speaking on national radio, German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said, "My goal is to nationally minimize the use of antibiotics and to improve the supervision by the responsible state governments."

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The announcement follows media reports in the country which revealed up to 80 percent of chickens bred for meat in some German regions had been treated with antibiotics. It also follows moves within the European Parliament to address the proyphylactic use of antibiotics on livestock, over fears this is contributing to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria and could pose health risks to humans.

In Germany, use of antibiotics in treating farm animals is already subject to restrictions, but under current laws, chicken farms do not have to report their use of antibiotics to statisticians because of their right to privacy; Aigner said this morning that this would change.