The UK remains one of the lowest users of veterinary antibiotics in Europe
The VMD acts as policy lead on AMR issues related to animals. This is underpinned by the UK’s AMR strategy, an ambitious programme to slow the development and spread of AMR, taking a ‘One Health’ approach spanning people, animals, agriculture, and the wider environment. This involves two key documents:
Our AMR collection page on gov.uk showcases the UK's plans to see AMR contained and controlled by 2040. It includes strategic publications, details on Parliamentary inquiries and independent reviews, clinical and technical resources, as well as resources for healthcare, livestock and veterinary professionals.
In order to effectively manage an issue such as AMR then it is vital to be able to monitor progress. Surveillance involves two key areas:
Surveillance data relating to sales, use and resistance is published in the UK-VARSS report. When considering sales and use, the latest report shows that:
These reductions have been achieved through collaborative working between government, the veterinary profession and the agriculture sectors, with a focus on improved biosecurity, stockmanship and good farming practices, disease prevention (including vaccination) and use of diagnostics.
It is testament to the drive, ambition and tenacity of dedicated people across the agriculture sector, veterinary profession, and countless other sectors and highlights how antibiotic stewardship has become an important feature of UK farm management.
The story of this collaborative approach is highlighted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN’s case study report Tackling antimicrobial resistance in food-producing animals: Lessons learned in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Antibiotic Amnesty
This November, for the third year running the veterinary sector is coming together to run the Antibiotic Amnesty campaign which encourages the public to return out-of-date and unused antibiotics to help tackle the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The campaign is designed to encourage people to bring back unused or unwanted antibiotics to their vet practice for safe disposal.
A campaign toolkit has been developed for practices and comprises a range of promotional support assets including reception posters, pre-written social media posts, newsletter content, practice guidance documents, client hand-outs, animations for use on practice screens and social media, plus many more assets.
This campaign is being led by RUMA Companion Animal and Equine and supported by many organisations including VMD.
Until recently, no national system to collate antibiotic use in cattle and sheep in the UK existed.
Medicine Hub was launched in 2021 by the industry, for the industry. It is the voluntary initiative to gather and collate antibiotic use data from dairy, beef, and sheep enterprises in the UK.
Developed and hosted by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, Medicine Hub’s creation has involved input from veterinary and farming organisations, milk processors, milk and meat buyers, retailers, RUMA (Responsible Use of Antibiotics in Agriculture alliance), the NFU, and the VMD.
Benefits of monitoring and benchmarking antibiotic use
Medicine Hub will allow reporting of the aggregated national antimicrobial use each year for the UK dairy, beef, and sheep sectors. Data always belong to the farmer and only they can give permission for others to have access to it.
Collating antibiotic use in this way will also allow farmers and their nominated advisors to monitor and benchmark their antibiotic use against similar farm types. Monitoring and benchmarking antibiotic use is an important part of practicing good antibiotic stewardship and has been shown to be beneficial in a number of ways.
Most major livestock sectors in the UK already collect and collate antibiotic use data. Annual aggregated antibiotic use data by livestock sector are published in the VARSS report. This table shows the voluntary collection, collation and publication of data in different UK livestock industries:
Livestock sector | Usage data collection system | Percentage of sector represented | Year data first published |
---|---|---|---|
Meat poultry (chicken, duck, turkey) | British Poultry Council | 90% | 2014 |
Gamebirds | Game Farmers Association | 91% | 2016 |
Trout | British Trout Association | 90% | 2017 |
Salmon | Scottish Salmon Producers' Association | 100% | 2017 |
Laying hens | British Egg Industry Council | 90% | 2016 |
Pigs | The electronic medicines book (hosted by AHDB) | >90% | 2015 |