Antibiotics use in livestock: Time to act - BEUC position paper published

BEUC (European Consumer Organisation) has set out its position on how to fight antibiotic resistance, one of today’s most challenging public health issues.

The inadequate use of antibiotics in animals used for food production contributes greatly to this phenomenon. This has major ramifications knowing that in both the EU and the US more antibiotics are used for livestock than in human medicine.

Here are BEUC’s main recommendations for EU decision-makers:

• Restricting the use of antibiotics to therapeutic use, better regulate and report on metaphylaxis use and phase out prophylaxis.
• Making individual treatment the norm and herd treatment the exception while restricting the use of oral treatments. The option of banning the use of antibiotics in medicated feed should be thoroughly examined.
• Reducing the need for antibiotics by improving animal health through biosecurity measures, disease prevention and good management practices.Decoupling veterinarians’ right to both prescribe and sell antibiotics to eliminate all economic incentives.
• Restricting the use of beta-lactam antibiotics, including cephalosporins, and other critically important antibiotics mentioned above. Those antibiotics should be banned for species where a high risk of resistance transmission has been identified, as well as for therapeutic group treatment and eventually for metaphylaxis. When other treatment options are available we believe their use should be phased out. Carbapanems should also continue to be banned in veterinary medicine while tough controls are necessary to ensure the drug is not used for livestock production.
• Implementing strict restrictions on ‘off-label use’, and in particular the cascade. At the same time concrete and ambitious reduction targets should be set to achieve a significant reduction in the use of antibiotics.
• Testing meat products to assess the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in food products. This should not only be done by consumer organisations but also by EU policy makers.
• Relying on sound data to monitor the progress made and assess whether the EU is on the right tracks. Consumption data by species should be collected by all Member States. Collecting data on the use of antibiotics at farm level proved to be an efficient way to compare practices and to align with the best performers.