Importance of Antibiotic Resistance in Farming Stressed Ahead of UN Event

This week, the importance of tackling resistance to antimicrobial drugs was underlined by a number of stakeholders ahead of a major meeting at the United Nations today, where countries are expected to sign up to a new plan to reduce the problem.

Disease-causing microbes becoming resistant renders antimicrobial drugs ineffective and puts lives in danger. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said this week that limiting use of antibiotics is the fastest and most reliable way to prevent antimicrobial resistance getting worse.

FAO said that the fundamental way to address resistance in food and agriculture is to adhere to best practice for hygiene, biosecurity, vaccination and animal handling, which reduces the need to use antimicrobial medicines in the first place – click here to read more.

The UK’s government said this week it is committed to finding a global strategy to fight antimicrobial resistance, and it also set domestic targets to reduce use of the drugs.

The government’s stance was broadly welcomed by stakeholder groups. John FitzGerald, secretary general of the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA) alliance, commented: “The UK farming industry is being asked to play its part, in reducing antibiotic use by around 19 per cent by 2018 based on sales recorded by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate in 2014.

“This will be testing, but we are confident and determined that the industry can rise to the challenge.” – Read more.

New rules on veterinary oversight for antimicrobial use in US farming come into force in January 2017, but there are still some concerns about implementation of the laws, for example, whether there will be enough vets to allow animals to get the medicines they need. Click here to find out more in our new article from Rachel Lane.