Concerning increase in antibiotic use in the pig industry

To mark World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness week (18th – 24th November), the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics – of which we are a founding member – is calling on the UK Government to urgently close loopholes in antibiotic policy and to fully implement existing legislation.

New legislation introduced in May prohibits routine antibiotic use, a welcome development. It also bans using antibiotics to control diseases caused by inadequate animal husbandry and poor hygiene. However, as intensive-farming practices remain in place, it is highly likely that antibiotics are still being used for this purpose.

A staggering number of deaths

The systematic overuse of antibiotics in human and animal medicine is undermining the world’s ability to cure life-threatening infections in people like sepsis and MRSA, by greatly increasing the spread of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. Scientists estimate that over 1 million people a year die because of antibiotic resistance, and the deaths of nearly five million people each year are associated with antibiotic resistance.

Preventative group treatments remain legal

Earlier this year the Alliance launched a report – How to End the Misuse of Antibiotics in Farming – which highlighted the UK Government’s failure to deliver on its commitment to ban preventative antibiotic treatments for groups of farmed animals. Repeated Government promises were made to align with the EU’s 2022 antibiotic regulations, however in May this year new Veterinary Medicines Regulations were introduced banning routine use and the use of antibiotics to compensate for poor hygiene and inadequate animal husbandry. Unfortunately, the legislation allowed prophylactic group treatments to continue, despite earlier promises to ban the practice. This means that some poorly run farms may keep feeding antibiotics to large groups of animals, even when no disease is present.

Action needed

The Alliance is calling on the Government to:

• Introduce mandatory antibiotic-use data collection
• Set new, more ambitious targets for reducing farm antibiotic use
• Improve minimum husbandry standards to reduce the need for antibiotics and so antibiotics are never used to compensate for poor hygiene or inadequate animal husbandry

Falling behind

There has been some commendable progress on reducing antibiotic use on UK farms with cuts of 59% over the past decade. However, in 2023 antibiotic use in the British pig industry increased by 18% . This was partly due to the withdrawal of zinc oxide as a treatment for post-weaning diarrhoea, and the resulting increase in antibiotic use to control the problem . Antibiotic use per pig in the UK has fallen by 69% since 2015, but is still about twice as high as in France and Denmark, nearly three times as high as in the Netherlands, and over four times as high as in Sweden. It is imperative the UK no longer falls behind.

Cóilín Nunan, Policy and Science Manager at the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics said: “The significant increase in antibiotic use in the pig industry is concerning. Some farmers seem to be using antibiotics to control diarrhoea caused by the stress of early weaning. They should instead be allowing piglets to remain with their mother for much longer. Later weaning is practiced in organic farming and on pig farms in Sweden, and this greatly reduces the need for antibiotics.

“Since May of this year, using antibiotics to compensate for inadequate animal husbandry has been banned. This means that antibiotics shouldn’t be used to control diarrhoea caused by early weaning. The Government now needs to ensure that the whole UK pig industry transitions to later weaning.

“The Government should also fully ban prophylactic group treatments with antibiotics and introduce mandatory antibiotic-use data collection by farm-animal species instead of relying on data collected voluntarily. The EU has already taken these steps, and the UK should not be lagging behind. Antibiotics are life-saving medicines and its critically important that they only be used responsibly.”

Find out more about the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics.