New goals to reduce antimicrobial use in Belgian livestock

The AMCRA (Knowledge center on antibiotic use and resistance in animals) wants to further reduce the total antibiotic use in animals in Belgium. Four new objectives are contained in the new antibiotics agreement for the period 2021-2024, which was signed by the federal minister of agriculture, David Clarinval, and the federal minister of public health, Frank Vandenbroucke.

In 2016, AMCRA made the first agreement with the federal government with the aim of structurally addressing antibiotic use in animals. Three important reduction targets were set: halving the total use of antibiotics in animals by 2020, decreasing the use of most critical antibiotics by 75% by 2020, and halving antibiotic-medicated feeds by 2017.

The interim results showed that the sector was well on track to meet the targets. At the end of 2019, a 40.3% decrease in the use of all antibiotics was already noted. The use of the most critical antibiotics even decreased by 77.3% and the use of medicated animal feed containing antibiotics decreased by 71.1%.

The positive results have prompted the animal sector to go one step further. The new agreement includes four objectives:

• Maximum total use of 50 mg per kilo of biomass by the end of 2024, which corresponds to a 65% reduction compared to 2011. (An extra decrease of 15% in 4 years)
• Reduce the use of colistin to a maximum of 1 mg per kg of biomass by 2024.
• The previous target aimed at halving the medicated feeds by 2017 compared to 2011. That target was more than achieved and the animal feed sector now wants to continue to focus on a decrease of 75% by 2024.
• Come down to less than 1% heavy users (pigs, broilers, veal calves).