Page 38 of articles about antimicrobial

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.

With the objective of further guaranteeing meat quality, last October the German Federal Chamber of Veterinarians published, in conjunction with the Regional Veterinary Medicine Work Group, a revised guide on the sensible use of antibiotics in livestock.

According to Danish Agriculture Minister Henrik Høegh, the use of antibiotics in pig production sholud be reduced by at least 10 percent in 2013.

According to the figures made public by the Agricultural Economic Institute (LEI), antibiotics use in the intensive livestock industry in the Netherlands has come down in 2009.

In 2009, the total antimicrobial consumption in pigs was 103.7 tonnes active substance, representing an 11% increase from 2008, while the consumption increased by 12% when measured in doses.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued draft guidance intended to help reduce the development of resistance to medically important antimicrobial drugs used in food-producing animals. The draft guidance outlines the FDA’s current thinking on strategies to assure that antimicrobial drugs that are important for therapeutic use in humans are used judiciously in animal agriculture. The FDA acknowledges the efforts to date by various veterinary and animal producer organizations to institute guidelines for the judicious use of antimicrobial drugs, but the agency believes additional steps are needed.

The Minister of Agriculture, Henrik Høegh, and the Minister of the Interior and Health, Bertel Haarder, have announced the start of a joint plan of action to minimize antimicrobial resistance.

The Dutch Minister for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Gerda Verburg, declared at the end of a recent government meeting that the use of antibiotics in livestock will have to be reduced by half in the next three years to reach the levels of 1999, and at least by 20% in 2011.

During the years 2004 to 2007, 26 Member States submitted information on the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic bacteria originating from poultry, pigs and cattle as well as from meat to the European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). In addition, Norway and Switzerland provided information for the report.

The annual MARAN report, published in early April, indicates that the use of antibiotics on farm animals in the Netherlands decreased in 2008 for the first time after several years of increasing use.