Source: VARSS 2019
This slight increase of 1.5 mg/kg – from 29.5 mg/kg to 31.0 mg/kg – took place between 2018 and 2019, and was announced by Defra at the release of the VMD’s new Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance (VARSS) 2019 annual report. The new total still remains half of the amount of antibiotics sold for farm animals in 2014, which was 62 mg/kg. The UK also remains one of the lowest users of antibiotic to treat farm animals in Europe; a European report comparing use in 2018 shows the UK as the fifth lowest user.
Source: VARSS 2019
The report also shows sales of HP CIAs have fallen 74% since 2015. Colistin use is now negligible at sales of 0.0002 mg/kg. Sales of fluoroquinolones for food-producing animals have reduced by 61% since 2015 to 0.13 mg/kg, and 3rd & 4th generation cephalosporins have fallen 82% to 0.03 mg/kg.
For context, HP CIAs form just 0.5% of total sales of antibiotics.
Source: VARSS 2019
An update of progress in reducing, refining or replacing use of antibiotics in each sector was published on 18 November 2020. The ‘Targets Task Force Report 2020‘ report details what is happening in each sector and has a handy summary as a separate document.
The report described how three-quarters of the forty sector-specific targets for antibiotic usage that were originally published in 2017 by the key livestock sectors via RUMA’s Targets Task Force have been met, and sets out new targets 2021-2024. These include aspirations to reduce antibiotics used to treat pigs by a further 30%, gamebirds by 40%, dairy cattle by 15% and calf rearing by 25%, as well as collect extensive data on antibiotic use in cattle and sheep.
ANTIBIOTICS USED IN HUMANS AND ANIMALS
The latest One Health report published by Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Food Standards Agency and Public Health England, shows less than a third of the UK’s antibiotics are used to treat disease in farm animals, which number over a billion in any one year.
See these infographics for more detail.