A coalition of farming, environmental, and animal welfare organisations have joined together in calling for a 50 per cent reduction in antibiotic use on farms. Compassion in World Farming, the Soil Association and sustainable farming advocates Sustain have joined together to form the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics.

image expired

The organisation formed amid fear that over-use of antimicrobials in farming is leading to an increase in resistant bacteria and that these could affect humans in the form of ‘superbugs’ which are incredibly difficult to treat. The calls, which come just days after MEPs voted to take action on improper use of antibiotics, coincide with a 12 point plan issued by the European Commission on tackling antibiotic resistance.

In its report Case Study of a Health Crisis, the Alliance claims almost 50 per cent of all antibiotics are used in farming; these are mostly used in the pig, poultry and dairy sectors. The group also said ‘factory farming’ provides the ideal conditions for antibiotic resistant bacteria to develop and affect humans.

The Alliance calls for antibiotic use on farms to be halved by 2015; it wants an end to the routine, prophylactic use of antimicrobials as well as major restrictions on drugs deemed "critically important" in human medicine. Each year, 25,000 patients in the EU die from infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria. Friday is European Antibiotic Awareness Day.

Joyce D'Silva, Director of Public Affairs at Compassion in World Farming, described the overuse of antibiotics as a "cheap insurance policy" for many farmers. She also warned that excessive antimicrobial use "makes a world without effective antibiotics for humans ever more likely."

12 point plan launched today

European health and consumer policy commissioner John Dalli said, on launching the plan earlier today, "We need to take swift and determined action if we do not want to lose antimicrobial medicines as essential treatment against bacterial infections in both people and animals.

"The 12 actions for the next five years could help limit the spread of anti-microbial resistance and help develop new anti-microbial treatment.  Their success requires joined efforts from the EU, the Member States, health care professionals, the industry and farmers."

Carl Padgett, President of the British Veterinary Association, cautiously applauded the Commission’s plans. He commented, "While the BVA supports the need for a new regulatory framework any new regulations must not impede the ability of veterinary surgeons toprescribe and dispense medicines according to their clinical judgement."

Professor Charles Butler, Head of the Institute of Primary Care and Public Health at Cardiff University, said, "It is not tenable to regard animal medicine as having marginal relevance to human health; systems are interlinked. The challenge now is to focus on antibiotic stewardship programmes that take a holistic view, incorporating all domains of antibiotic use."

The 12 points outlined by the Commission are:

• Improve awareness of appropriate use of antimicrobials
• Strengthen EU law on veterinary medicines and on medicated feed
• Introduce recommendations for prudent use of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine, including follow-up reports
• Strengthen infection prevention and control in hospitals, clinics.
• Introduce legal tools to tighten prevention and control of infections in animals in the new EU - Animal Health Law
• Promote collaboration to bring new antimicrobials to patients
• Promote efforts to analyse the need for new antibiotics in veterinary medicine
• Develop and/or strengthen multilateral and bilateral commitments for the prevention and control of resistance
• Strengthen surveillance of resistance and antimicrobial consumption in human medicines
• Strengthen surveillance systems on antimicrobial consumption in animal medicines
• Reinforce and co-ordinate research
• Improve communication on resistance to the public.