Ambitious targets set for antibiotic reductions on UK farms

The UK farming sector has hit 75% of its original targets to reduce antibiotic use in food production animals.

The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) released its Targets Task Force Report 2020 on European Antibiotic Awareness Day today (18 November), with figures showing three-quarters of the original reduction targets have now been achieved or are on track to be achieved by the December 2020 deadline.

New goals

Contained in the report is a set of new goals designed to build on the implementation of the previous set of targets (released in 2017), which have helped halve sales of antibiotics to treat UK farm animals and achieve the fifth-lowest usage in Europe, with only Nordic countries lower¹.

Launched alongside the VMD’s release of antibiotic sales data for 2019, the report covers 10 sectors across aquaculture, pigs, poultry and ruminants. For the first time, calf rearing has been examined in isolation to focus in on the specific health and welfare interventions that will reduce the need for antibiotic treatments.

Good response

RUMA chairman Cat McLaughlin said: “The UK farming industry has responded extremely well to the targets. Our original aim of lowering overall antibiotic use, and in particular highest-priority critically important antibiotics (HP-CIAs), has been categorically achieved in the face of some challenging external conditions.

“Most sectors are now capturing data on antibiotic use across 90% or more of their sector, which has been a key part of the success. Even where usage data is lacking, but good sales data are available – for example, in cattle and sheep – sizeable reductions have been achieved, especially in sales of HP-CIAs.”

Data lacking

However, data for the cattle and sheep sectors is still lacking, which is why targets for 2024 include the collection of data into the new Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Medicine Hub, a UK centralised database for ruminants.

Targets across the ruminant sectors also include a focus on disease prevention, and herd and flock health planning, with plans to develop a new network of “farm vet champions” (FVCs).

National network

Inspired by the Welsh Arwain Vet Cymru project, it will recruit, train and encourage a UK-wide network of FVCs to set, meet and record personal and practice-level specific medicine prescribing goals.

All farm animal practitioners will be encouraged to sign up and get involved at either an individual, practice or group level.

Further decreases

Although specific reduction goals have not been set for the beef and sheep sectors, it is hoped dairy and calf rearing will secure antibiotic reductions of 15% and 25%, respectively, across the national herd by 2024 as data become available.

Other sectors aiming to achieve reductions in antibiotic use as a result of farm-level interventions include the pig sector, with plans to decrease by a further 30% by 2024; and game birds, with a goal to cut back by 40%.

Holistic approach

VMD chief executive Peter Borriello has welcomed the report, confirming that the UK livestock sectors already have good progress behind them.

He said: “The ambition now outlined in this report – alongside the proactive, holistic approaches and focus on behaviour change principles – gives me every confidence that they will once again succeed.”

Ultimate benefits

Prof Borriello added: “We look forward to working with the sectors as we continue on this endeavour, which will ultimately be of benefit to the reputation of the UK livestock sectors, as well as helping to protect human and animal health.”

The VMD’s Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance 2019 report, also released today, shows UK antibiotic sales for food-producing animals have halved since 2014, when sales were recorded at 62mg/kg.

Reference

1. European Medicines Agency (2020). Sales of veterinary antimicrobial agents in 31 European countries in 2018: trends 2010-2018, https://bit.ly/2IOujtL