UK Edition
Antibiotics for animals to be restricted under government plans to beat drug resistance
The government is expected to ban the preventative use of antibiotics in animals to try and tackle the growing problem of drug resistance.
Next week, Lord O’Neill will publish the findings of his second government review into antibiotic resistance, which is likely to set targets for on how much medication farmers and vets can give to livestock.
Although Europe has some of the strictest regulations in the world governing the use of antibiotics in animals - such as the complete ban on using drugs to boost growth - the government is still concerned about the wide use of medication
In a report which is due to be published on Wednesday, Lord O’Neill will warn that the overuse of antibiotics in farming is already threatening the effectiveness of human medicine.
The peer is expected to recommend a ban, or severe restriction, on using antibiotics in feed or drinking water to treat healthy animals at risk of infection.
He will also call for a global awareness campaign to encourage other countries to cut down their use. In the US around 70 per cent of all antibiotics used are for livestock.
“One our recommendations is to propose a major global awareness campaign because these things are being handed out like sweets,” said Lord O’Neill, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
“It’s hugely important. In countries like the US it’s the case that there is greater use in agriculture that humans and that in itself is part of the problem. The greater the use means the greater the misuse.
“There are a huge number of people who still aren’t aware of the problems, including some of my family members.
“Within 35 years we might not be able to offer caesarean sections because you won’t be able to have the drugs. You might not be able to have cancer treatments."
Already deadly bacteria like E.coli and Salmonella have mutated to resistant to our last line of antibiotics and lethal strains are circulating in Britain.
Currently, when all other drugs fail, doctors use polymyxins – such as colistin - as a last resort to treat bacterial infections.
Colistin is frequently used for mass medication of intensively farmed pigs and poultry, and scientists believe that the resistance gene has spread from farm animals to humans because the antibiotic is used much more widely in veterinary medicine than it is in human medicine.
In December vets and famers agreed to limit the use of Colisin, but there are worries that other drugs, used for both humans and animals, will soon become useless.
Britain is expected to follow Denmark’s lead and set targets of 50mg of antibiotic per kilo of meat.
The government’s Chief Veterinary Office Prof Nigel Gibbens said that farmers should be encouraged to keep their livestock in better conditions to cut down on disease and the need for antibiotics.
“Often we find that because animals are kept in a group if one gets an illness they all go down, so you will often end up treating the whole group, which is sensible but means a lot of drugs are used.
“But in antibiotics we need to reduce the use for all animals. The bugs that infect humans are very similar to the bugs which infect animals, sometimes they are the same, so we are using the same drugs to fight them.”
Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies, added: “We need far fewer antibiotics if we have scrupulous sanitation and hygiene. “