Farm Antibiotics Campaigners Welcome O’Neill Report and Call for Ambitious Antibiotic Reduction Targets

20 May 2016 --- British campaigners from The Alliance to Save our Antibiotics have welcomed the O’Neill Report on tackling the antimicrobial resistance crisis, and are calling on government agency Defra to set ambitious targets to reduce farm antibiotic use. 

The critical nature of antimicrobial resistance has been well documented by experts across the globe, and inappropriate use of drugs in livestock farming is widely recognised as a contributory risk. 

However, overuse of these medicines within the farming sector continues. 

Across Europe, twice as many antibiotics are used in farm animals than are used in humans. Routine, preventative dosing of groups of healthy animals remains legal within the EU, despite opposition from the European Medicines Agency and several European countries. In the UK, veterinary use of antibiotics classified as “critically important for humans” is at an all-time high. 

The final report from the Antimicrobial Resistance Review (AMR) team, commissioned by British Prime Minister David Cameron and chaired by Lord O’Neill, found “compelling” scientific evidence that antibiotic resistance is being transmitted from farm animals to humans. It calls for a reduction in the total use of farm antibiotics, and recommends the setting of ‘ambitious’ country-specific targets for the reduction of farm-antibiotic use in livestock.

The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics is an association of health, medical, environmental and animal welfare groups working to stop the overuse of antibiotics in intensive animal farming. It agrees that urgent global reductions to veterinary antibiotic use are needed, and is calling on the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to set a target for reducing farm antibiotic use by 50% by 2020 and by 80% by 2025, including a target to cut the use of antibiotics classified as "critically important" in human medicine by 80% by 2020 and 95% by 2025.

Ideally targets for reducing antibiotic use should be set by species, once data on usage in each species becomes available, as use in intensively-farmed pigs and poultry is many times higher than in extensively farmed sheep. Proportionally the UK has relatively few pigs and many sheep in comparison to most EU countries, which makes the average use per kg of meat produced in the UK appear fairly low. However, use per animal in pigs and poultry in the UK is at least 3.5 times higher than in Nordic countries and the Netherlands.

Emma Rose from the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics said: “The final report from the Antimicrobial Resistance Review team is a welcome recognition of the contribution of farm-antibiotic to the rise of antibiotic resistance in human infections. We fully agree that urgent global reductions are needed."

"The Government must also put a stop to the routine preventative dosing of groups of healthy animals. Allowing such practices to continue in UK farming will undermine any chance of achieving the ambitious reductions targets we need to see. At present, the Government says it opposes routine preventative use, but it also says it won’t take any action until forced to do so by the European Union. That kind of prevaricating isn’t acceptable when faced with the threat of a post-antibiotic era.”

The O'Neill Report (also known as the AMR Report) references the role of intensive farming practices can play in accelerating the spread of antibiotic resistance, and states that changes to farming systems to improve animal health must be part of the solution. 

Peter Melchett, Policy Director at the Soil Association, said: “If we are to have a chance of tackling the antibiotic resistance crisis, we need to change the way we farm. Global livestock antibiotic use is forecast to increase by 67% by 2030, due to the expected increasing intensification of global livestock systems. We know that organic and extensive systems use far fewer antibiotics than intensive systems. If Defra is serious about reducing farm antibiotic use, it must help farmers shift towards higher-welfare and more extensive systems.”

Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), called the Report “a thorough and compelling review” which tackled “the burning need to find incentives that can get new products into the pipeline”.

The Alliance for the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA) said it would work with organizations including farming leaders, food companies and government to find ways to replace antibiotic use where possible, and reduce it where not.

John FitzGerald, Secretary General of RUMA, said: “We understand the ambition to develop long-term targets [on antibiotic use]. The industry has long recognized the beneficial role targets can play, but is acutely aware that inappropriate targets can also be counterproductive, and even lead to increased risk of resistance.”