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In 2018, antibiotic use in terms of defined daily doses animal (DDDANATvalues) declined in the turkey farming sector (by 13.4%), the veal farming sector (by 5.4%), the dairy and non-dairy cattle farming sectors (by 0.4% and 1.7%, respectively) and the pig farming sector (by 0.4%).
While the pig farming sector still managed to reduce the amount of antibiotics used, this reduction is leveling off. With a 0.4% reduction recorded for 2018, the downward trend is nearing the 0% level.
In 2017, the pig farming sector saw an undesirable rise in the percentage of farms with weaner pigs recording action zone usage levels, as a result of the introduction of new benchmark thresholds in 2016. 2018 saw a slight improvement in this respect, with farms with weaner pigs recording usage levels that were not quite as high (the mean DDDAFof the 10% of farms with the highest usage levels dropped from 52.9 in 2017 to 44.0 in 2018). The correlation coefficient for 2017 and 2018 antibiotic use at farms with weaner pigs is 0.74. This high degree of correlation indicates that their 2017 usage level was a predictor of their 2018 usage level. This suggests that there are structural usage level differences between individual farms with weaner pigs, and shows the necessity of addressing the amounts of antibiotics used at high usage level farms.
October 2019/ SDa/ Netherlands.
https://www.autoriteitdiergeneesmiddelen.nl
