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United Kingdom - Sales of veterinary antimicrobials in the UK in 2009
Defra has published a report on sales of veterinary antimicrobials for 2009. The report, produced by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), shows that total sales of therapeutic antimicrobials in 2009 was 402 tonnes, which was an increase of 18 tonnes (4.7%) when compared with 2008, when 384 tonnes were sold.
The main points and changes presented in this year’s report are:
• There is a net 18 tonne increase in sales of veterinary antimicrobials, most of which is accounted for by a small increase in sales of most classes of antimicrobials.
• There is an increase in sales of products for food-producing animals of 22 tonnes and a decrease of 4 tonnes for non-food animals only.
• No sales of antimicrobial growth promoters are reported as their use and sale were banned from 1 January 2006.
• In 2009 79 Kg fewer fluoroquinolones were sold than in 2008. For cephalosporins, there was an increase of 354 Kg.
• No data on antimicrobial products imported under the SIC/STC systems have been included in this report as routine validation of the database of applications identified duplicate applications and other errors, which would lead to over-reporting of data. VMD is currently considering how
to address this issue.
• For the fourth year in a row the kilograms of antimicrobial active ingredient used per tonne of live weight of animals slaughtered for food remained constant at 0.06Kg/tonne.
In 2009 sales of antimicrobial products for therapeutic use in food-producing animals accounted for approximately 87% (349 tonnes) of the total annual sales of 402 tonnes which was comparable with previous years. However it is not possible to identify the proportion of the 349 tonnes which was administered to animals that did not enter the food chain.
Approximately 45-55% of the total sales of therapeutic antimicrobials were accounted for by tetracyclines in each year from 2004 to 2009. In each of the reporting years between 1 and 2 tonnes of fluoroquinolones were sold (less than 1% of the total). Between 69% and 82% of therapeutic antimicrobial products for food-producing animals only were sold for use as medicated feedingstuffs, over the reporting period (2004–2009), most of which are sold for
use in pig and poultry farming.
Overall the sales of therapeutic antimicrobial products for use in food-producing animals showed an increase in 2009, from the 2008 sales. There was an increase in sales of therapeutic antimicrobials in 2009 for some of the individual food-producing species e.g. pig and poultry only products increased by 10 tonnes and poultry only products increased by 6 tonnes in 2009 compared to 2008. Stable sales were seen for cattle only and pig only (11 and 62 tonnes a.i. respectively). Sales of multi-species products (excluding pig and poultry only)
also increased from 2008 to 2009.
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