Agriculture: Antibiotics

(asked on )

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of antibiotic use in farming on the rise of antibiotic resistant superbugs.


Answered by
George Eustice Portrait
George Eustice
This question was answered on 24th January 2018

The use of antibiotics in animal production can be a source of emergence and spread of AMR. As part of the government’s response to the Independent Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, Defra committed to reduce sales of antibiotics for use in livestock by 20% to 50mg/kg by 2018. This target was met two years early. The latest data from 2016 show that sales had fallen to 45mg/kg. Defra is now working with the livestock industry to implement the sector specific targets published in October 2017 to promote reduction in antibiotic use while encouraging best husbandry practice.

The UK monitors and publishes the level of resistance in bacteria from food-producing animals annually. The latest data published in 2017 show that overall the rates of resistance have remained relatively stable for most of the bacteria and antibiotics tested and that the level of resistance in E.coli found in chickens has started to decrease.

Reticulating Splines