European Antibiotic Awareness Day - Government must Act on Farm Resistance
19/11/2009

http://www.soilassociation.org/

The Soil Association welcomes the UK’s involvement in the second European Antibiotic Awareness Day, today [1], but is calling on the Government to give as much attention to reducing the over-use of antibiotics on farms and in veterinary surgeries as it gives to hospitals and doctors’ surgeries [2].

As last year, the Awareness Day will primarily target doctors, nurses, pharmacists and the general public, with the aim of reducing the overuse of antibiotics in human medicine. Unfortunately, much less effort is being put into targeting vets and farmers.

This is despite the fact that, according to a Government report published in 2007, over 53% of antibiotics used in the UK are given to animals [3], mostly in food or water. About 90% of veterinary antibiotic use is in farm animals [4].

Excessive antibiotic use in farm animals leads to higher levels of antibiotic resistance, which can have consequences for animal health and welfare, as diseases become untreatable, and for human health, when resistant bacteria transfer from animals to humans.

According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), resistant salmonella and campylobacter involved in human disease are mostly spread through foods [5]. Highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA and ESBL E. coli have also recently emerged in farm animals in most countries, and can sometimes be passed to humans [6]. Sir Liam Donaldson, the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, has referred to the ‘irresponsible antibiotic use in the agricultural sector’, and said that: “Resistant bacteria developing in animals could pose a threat to people. Antibiotics must be used in moderation in agricultural settings and only when necessary for animal welfare” [7]. 

Despite this the Government does not take a direct role in advising vets or farmers on how to minimise antibiotic use or the development of resistance. Instead it works through the quasi-commercial Veterinary Medicines Directorate which relies heavily on funding from both drug companies and farmers. The Government even supports the continued advertising of antibiotics directly to farmers [8].

An incredible 96% of farm antibiotics are used in pigs and poultry, the two most intensively farmed species [4]. Even though there are over seven times as many sheep in the UK as there are pigs, total antibiotic use in the pig sector is over 115 times higher than it is in sheep farming [4]. This is because sheep are usually farmed outdoors, while pigs, like chickens, are generally kept in unnatural factory-farming conditions and antibiotics are used to control the spread of disease.

Soil Association Policy Adviser, Richard Young, said:
“Most vets and farmers approach the use of antibiotics responsibly, but this is not universally the case. There is also a very low level of awareness of the resistance problems currently developing on British farms and how to prevent these spreading. As such the Government must actively engage with all sections of the livestock industry, as it has done with the medical profession and the public.

“Many largescale producers are locked into highly intensive methods in an attempt to compete with cheap foreign imports. Using extra antibiotics is still the most cost-effective option for these producers and that raises questions for society, to which the Government, supermarkets, consumer groups and others need to give urgent consideration.”


Notes
[1] See European Antibiotic Awareness Day webpage on the Department of Health’s website

[2] The Soil Association wants the Government to:

• launch a campaign to reduce the farm use of antibiotics
• ban the advertising of antibiotics to farmers
• set up an inquiry into the routine prophylactic use of antibiotics on farms
• greatly increase surveillance for antibiotic-resistant bacteria in pigs, poultry and dairy cows on farms and at abattoirs

[3] See ‘Overview of Antimicrobial Usage and Bacterial Resistance in Selected Human and Animal Pathogens in The UK 2004 Report’published in 2007.

[4] See Veterinary Medicines Directorate report on antimicrobial sales in veterinary medicine in 2008, published in November 2009.

[5] See ‘Foodborne antimicrobial resistance as a biological hazard’

[6] See EFSA report on MRSA in farm animals published in March 2009
ESBL E. coli infections are estimated to affect 30,000 people a year in the UK (see Health Protection Agency website) and up to 4,200 of these are estimated to die (see ‘Threat from new E. coli’, The Times, 27 September 2007).
ESBL E. coli have been found in imported poultry meat (see Warren et al. 2008 , ‘Imported chicken meat as a potential source of quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases in the UK’, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy), and home-produced cattle (see Defra website) and studies in other countries have implicated food in the spread of infections to humans (see Lavilla et al. 2008, ‘Dissemination of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing bacteria: the food-borne outbreak lesson’, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy).

[7] See p.45 of Chief Medical Officer’s reportpublished in March 2009

[8] In 2005, a new EU directive (Directive 2004/28/EC) required the banning of all advertising of veterinary antibiotics to the general public. Initially, draft UK legislation had interpreted this to mean that the advertising of antibiotics to farmers, who do not have professional expertise in antibiotic prescribing, would no longer be permitted. However, after an intense lobbying campaign by the pharmaceutical industry, the Government backtracked and has continued to allow advertising of antibiotics to farmers
see VMD websiteand NOAH website

Facebook

MySpace

Digg It

Del.icio.us

Reddit

StubmleUpon

Newsvine