0
The Food Control System (QS) responds to current needs by monitoring the use of antibiotics. Ninety-five percent of the pork and poultry sold in the German retail market and 85% of the beef come from the QS system. As an integral part of the QS system, antibiotic monitoring has been providing important information on the use of drugs with antibiotic activity in animal production for ten years.
The results clearly show that antibiotic use in the QS scheme has decreased significantly since the start of monitoring and has settled for years at a level that should correspond to the therapeutically necessary minimum.
After remaining relatively stable in previous years, the amount of antibiotics used decreased again in 2021. Compared to 2020, 14.2% less antibiotics were used in 2021 (456.3 t in 2020; 391.5 t in 2021). With a reduction in antibiotic use of 46.9 t (15.8%), most antibiotics were used in swine production (Figure 1). Also in poultry, antibiotic use decreased significantly by 12.3% (17.6 t) from 2020 to 2021 for the first time in 5 years. In the bovine sector, the quantities of antibiotics used remained almost stable with a variation of -1.9% (0.3 t) from 2020 to 2021.
Figure 1: Evolution of antibiotic use (in tons) in the QS system.
July 8, 2022/ QS/ Germany.
https://www.q-s.de
