19 Nov 2025
Vet group demonstrates impact of its antimicrobial stewardship QI programme with cutback in antibiotic usage figures.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
Rachel Dean with the 2025 VetPartners Antibiotic Stewardship Report.
A veterinary group has revealed its antibiotic usage figures across its UK practices have more than halved over the last four years.
VetPartners released its 2025 Antibiotics Stewardship Report as part of the World Health Organisation’s World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week (18 to 24 November).
The group revealed it has reduced antibiotic purchasing across all species by 33.5% since last year and by 62.8% since 2021, achieving a year-on-year decline in that period.
It has also reduced purchasing of metronidazole by 25.4% between 2024 and 2025, with one medium-sized practice said to have bought none last year.
In VetPartners’ equine practices, it reported a reduction in purchasing of enrofloxacin and ceftiofur (both highest priority critically important antibiotics) by 20.5% and 50.1% respectively since 2021.
Over the same period, it reduced purchasing of trimethoprim/sulfadiazine by 46.8%.
In its farm practices, it saw a 13% reduction in antibiotic purchasing between 2023 and 2024, coinciding with a 4.6% increase in the purchasing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories.
VetPartners’ efforts have come as part of its antimicrobial stewardship quality improvement programme to review use and identify areas where change can be implemented across its practices in the UK and Europe.
VetPartners group director of clinical research and excellence in practice Rachel Dean said: “We’ve had an overall reduction in antibiotics use in the UK and it shows our teams are trying hard to transfer and innovate what they do every day in their decisions, while maintaining great standards of care outcomes for our patients.
“This is an international issue and we are continuing to innovate what we are doing in the UK and support other teams with their antibiotic stewardship to enable them to progress clinical use of antibiotics.”
Speaking in a webinar last week after the Responsible Use of Medicines Alliance – Companion Animal and Equine announced the first-ever targets for national antimicrobial usage reduction in companion animals, Dr Dean recommended conducting basic audits to monitor change in usage to “give you confidence and evidence for your practice quite quickly”.
She added: “So long as we can consistently measure [usage] and reflect on it… then we’re doing a good job.”
