UK: Alliance to "Save Our Antibiotics"

Compassion in World Farming, Sustain, and the Soil Association welcome the joint letter from the British Veterinary Association (BVA) and the British Medical Association (BMA) on the use and misuse of antimicrobials. It is very timely that the two bodies representing the professions responsible for administering the vast majority of antibiotics to humans and animals have put out such an unambiguous statement acknowledging the role of ‘poor prescribing’ in causing the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs and calling for ‘responsible use’, according to the Soil Association.

There is little doubt that excessive reliance on antibiotics in intensive livestock farming is a key factor - globally 50 % of all antibiotics are used on farm animals. Although UK usage is slightly lower at 40 – 42 %, of the thirteen antibiotics frequently given to the feed or drinking water of pigs in the UK, eleven are closely related to drugs used in human medicine. The Director-General of the World Health Organisation warned only last year that, ‘the world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era’.

In 2004-2005, a new strain of MRSA was found in pigs on Dutch factory farms and by 2006, it was estimated that 50 % of all Dutch pig farmers carried the strain. Just last month, the first-ever documented cases of MRSA were confirmed in British farm animals – with 15 cases of a completely new type of MRSA found in milk from dairy farms throughout England. These outbreaks and the major recorded increase in food-poisoning bacteria resistant to a range of antibiotics highlight the urgency for action.

Soil Association