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

To ask His Majesty's Government what lessons they have learnt from the former widespread use of anti-microbial peptides, such as colistin, in animal feed; and whether they are taking steps to warn other countries against the continued use of these drugs.

The UK Government has been working with farming stakeholders domestically and internationally for many years to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics in food producing animals, including reducing the use of highest priority critically important antibiotics such as Colistin. To date our national sales of veterinary antibiotics have reduced by 55% since 2014, and in 2021 we recorded the lowest antibiotic use yet. Colistin is now one of the least used antibiotics in animals in the UK. The latest UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales Surveillance Report showed there was zero Colistin sold in 2021.

The UK Government is committed to working with global partners to improve standards on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antibiotic stewardship for example through participation in the Codex Alimentarius AMR Task Force revision of the “Code of Practice to Minimize and Contain Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance”, by advocating for best practice in multilateral forums and by promoting global ‘one health’ action on AMR through our commitments under the UK National Action Plan for AMR 2019-24.