DANMAP reports welcome decline in antibiotic usage
The decline of the use of antibiotics in the Danish livestock sector in 2015 has been welcomed, said an annual DANMAP report.
The report has recently been published by Statens Serum Institut, DTU Vet and DTU Food, and claims that the antibiotics decline has been driven largely by reductions in usage in pigs.
This fall in antibiotics usage might be seen in the light of an increase in Danish pig production over the same period.
The Danish pig industry is said to have one of the lowest levels of veterinary medicine usage among all major pig producing countries.
Director of the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Flemming Nør-Pedersen, commented: “These positive outcomes are the result of a committed effort on the part of veterinarians and pig producers and this is most definitely to be welcomed since antibiotics for pigs have generally declined by 4% from 2014 to 2015.
“Since 2009, usage has fallen by 22%: a fall from an already low level compared with other countries.”
The use of tetracycline continues a downward trend, and although the use of colistin increased, it is a minor part of medical treatment for pigs and remains well below EU target levels and compares favourably with other major producing countries.
Nonetheless, the commitment to further reduction remains in place.
The Danish pig industry has already banned the use of cephalosporins, used widely to treat staphylococcus infections in the human population, and Denmark is one of the few countries to have banned the use of fluoroquinolones in pigs.
These findings are taken from the DANMAP 2015 report, a 20-year anniversary edition of the Danish surveillance programme of antimicrobial resistance and consumption in humans and animals.
The report includes the annual surveillance and a jubilee chapter presenting the main milestones and experiences from the last 20 years.
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