‘Farming promotes antibiotic resistance in humans’
England’s chief medical officer has blamed the overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming for contributing to resistance in drugs used in human medicine.
Prof Dame Sally Davies described resistance to antibiotics as a “ticking timebomb” and she urged the government to take the threat of resistance as seriously as the threat of terrorism.
She warned that routine operations could potentially become deadly in as little as 10-20 years.
“If we don’t take action, then we may all be back in an almost 19th-century environment where infections kill us as a result of routine operations. We won’t be able to do a lot of our cancer treatments or organ transplants,” Prof Davies said.
A campaign group targeting antibiotic use on farms has used the CMO’s report as a platform to launch its own report on drug resistance.
The report, Antibiotic resistance – the impact of intensive farming on human health, was published on 11 March by the alliance to Save Our Antibiotics. It says that the government is “still not facing up to the problems caused by the excessive use of antibiotics on farms”.
Backed by organic promotion body the Soil Association, the report says: “These are serious problems that call for both changes in the law, and help for farmers to move to higher-welfare systems less dependent on antibiotics.
“On many intensive livestock farms, antibiotics continue to be used routinely for disease prevention or for the treatment of avoidable outbreaks.”
The alliance rejected a government assertion that no conclusive evidence exists to link farm antibiotic use and resistance in human infections.
“Drawing on assessments by the World Health Organisation and the European Food Safety Authority, the alliance report shows that for some human infections, such as salmonella and campylobacter, farm antibiotic use is the principal cause of resistance,” the report says.
It adds, that in other diseases like E coli and enterococci, on-farm antibiotic use contributes significantly to human treatment problems.
Richard Young, Soil Association policy adviser, said: “The high use of antibiotics in intensive livestock farming is already causing treatment failures in human infections, and the situation will only get worse if nothing is done. We need a complete change of attitude within DEFRA and the livestock industry.
“Antibiotics should only be used when animals become ill and not given to large groups of healthy animals as a cheap insurance policy.”
Mr Young added: “British government advisers have cautioned against action to reduce antibiotic use significantly, as they believe this would increase production costs.”
The alliance is calling for:
- A legally binding timetable for the phased ending of all routine preventative, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics
- A ban on the use of modern cephalosporins in poultry, pigs and for dry-cow therapy in cattle. Off-label use of these antibiotics should also be banned
- A ban on the use of fluoroquinolones in poultry
- New legislation aimed at ensuring that farm animals are kept in healthier, less intensive conditions, wherever possible with access to the outdoors
- Support for farmers to shift to higher-welfare systems that depend less on antibiotic use, by using money budgeted under the Common Agricultural Policy to back investment, spread best practice and fund the most relevant research
- Improved surveillance of antibiotic use and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in farm animals.
Zac Goldsmith calls for tougher controls on antibiotics