Farmers will work to reduce antibiotic use in agriculture

It follows the final report of the O'Neill Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, published on Thursday, which warned superbugs could kill 10 million people a year by 2050 unless action is taken to prevent the rise of drug-resistant infections.

Use of antibiotics in agriculture is cited as a contributing factor in the report, which sets out a series of measures, including 'quicker progress to be made on banning or restricting antibiotics that are vital for human health from being used in animals.'

The problem was highlighted last year when researchers in China identified a bacterial gene in an intensively-farmed pig which was resistant to colistin, a 'last resort' antibiotic for treating drug-resistant infections in humans.

Lord O'Neill said: 'What needs to happen on mis-use in agriculture is to ban 'last-in-line' antibiotics that we need for humans. These things don't need to be used on animals, so we need to stop it.'

The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA) Alliance responded by announcing the creation of a cross-sector task-force to look at how 'meaningful targets' can be developed to reduce and refine antibiotic use in UK agriculture.

Livestock representatives in East Anglia are keen to play their part – but concerned that the global response recommended by the report should be applied equally in parts of the world with less stringent medicinal regimes.

Roger Long is a cattle dealer based in Scarning, near Dereham, and is also a Norfolk delegate on the National Farmers' Union (NFU) regional livestock board. He said: 'At the end of the day, if it is for the benefit of human treatment, then of course we have got to look at it. But when you are fighting a war, as we are against diseases, you need something in your armoury. If that is taken away, then heaven knows what will happen.

'There are countries in the world using large amounts of medication in pork production, and in poultry production to get the weights up for slaughter.

'But we as a country always abide by the rules that are flouted elsewhere in the world. If new rules are brought in, we will be the first to abide by them, but we couldn't say the same for other countries. We are being targeted, but we are not the people creating the problem.'

Mr Long said farmers were already reducing antibiotic usage through new developments such as using probiotics to prevent gut inflammations in cattle, and using electronic ear tags which could give early indication of fever, lowering the requirement for treatment.

'We all use drugs responsibly for the management of the health of our animals,' he said. 'But if a calf has got a temperature, we are still going to need an antibiotic to reduce that temperature, although we might get away with a lesser strength one if we find out quicker.'

Tom Hume, a partner at Westover Vets and part of the large animal team based at Hainford, near Norwich, said: 'There has definitely been a shift in attitude within veterinary circles about using antibiotics responsibly, but also our choice of antibiotics.

'From our point of view we are much more aware of not using front-line antibiotics first. The broad spectrum older classes of antibiotics are still effective in most cases, but then as you go up the scale of more recently-developed treatments, and then the drugs which have a crossover with human medicine – we are much more reserved about using those.

'The big hurdle for us, still, is the time delay. What we should all do is take samples, grow out the bacteria and see what it is sensitive to in terms of antibiotics. But we are presented with animals that have an infection and we need to treat it straight away.'

Industry focus: Pig sector

The National Pig Association (NPA) said Lord O'Neill's recommendations on antimicrobial resistance will be incorporated into the recently-launched Pig Industry Antibiotic Stewardship Programme.

It includes collating antibiotic use data on pig units and benchmarking it against similar farms, while improving education in effective disease control strategies.

'We support the report's view that unnecessary use of antimicrobials in agriculture can cause a threat to human health and we agree with its key findings concerning agriculture,' said NPA chief executive Dr Zoe Davies.

'Its recommendations regarding improved animal health education, the need for accurate data on antibiotic usage, and restricting the use of last-resort antibiotics are already included in our new stewardship programme.'

Simon Watchorn, who keeps a 600-sow herd of outdoor-reared pigs at Park Farm near Bungay, said the Pig Industry Medicines Hub launched last month by the Pig Health and Welfare Council, is an important tool in devising solutions..

'The whole world needs to use antibiotics responsibly,' he said. 'It does not matter if you are a man in a white coat in a hospital or a farmer like me in a field looking after animals.

'The pig industry is working up some strategies for vets and farmers to help them look at their use in their production process – to look at where they are using it, why they are using it and to come up with some management strategies to reduce that use of antibiotics which will, in turn, reduce the risk of resistance. That won't happen overnight, but we need to take on all the good work that has been done over the years.'

Mr Watchorn said his farm had been able to reduce its antibiotic use through simple processes, such as using acidified drinking water to reduce salmonella infections – and ensuring good hygiene practices.

'It is about good husbandry,' he said. 'It is not the answer to every prayer, but you are reducing the risk of that animal getting sick. You wouldn't eat your dinner off yesterday's plate without washing it, so when you change a batch of pigs, you need to wash the feeders. It is the same principle. We are not talking about high science. It is about setting up a management strategy, and sticking to a routine.'