Pig producers urged to send in antibiotics data
©FLPA/John Eveson/Rex/Shutterstock AHDB Pork is urging pig producers to submit their 2015 on-farm antibiotic usage data before the end of the year, to help the industry set realistic reduction targets this spring.
Government is currently working with industry to determine suitable reduction targets for each sector, as it seeks to reduce overall antibiotics use to a new target of 50mg/kg of meat produced by 2018.
Figures released last week show that the current average, based on sales, is 56mg/kg meat, spread across the board, though use in the pig sector is believed to be considerably above this average.
See also: ‘Encouraging’ results on antibiotic resistance in pigs
Martin Smith, AHDB Pork veterinary team manager, said: “These reduction targets, which will run for 10 years from 2018, will add to mounting government pressure on producers.
“The industry will be setting these targets in less than six months and they could have a big impact on production.
“At the moment, we’re in the dark about usage as we only know total antibiotic sales data for pigs and poultry combined.
“This obviously doesn’t give us an accurate picture of pig-specific use and that’s why we need the help of each and every pig farmer.”
All producers need to do is send their antibiotic usage data, in any form, to their knowledge exchange manager, or the pig hub email address, and the team will upload the data anonymously to the electronic medicines book.
“To date, uptake from producers has been good, but we really need to get at least 70% of total pig production figures. That’s why we’re happy that producers send us their data and we’ll upload it anonymously to the system.”
New data
Figures released last week by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate showed that sales of products licensed for both pigs and poultry in 2015 were down 23t to 212t, a 10% drop on the previous year. This was out of total sales of 404t for use in animals, including companion animals.
Sales of products licensed for pigs only were down even more, by 24% at 50t – the biggest fall across all the sectors.