The National Pig Association is launching an antibiotic stewardship programme to achieve minimum use of antibiotics, consistent with responsible human and food-animal medicine.
“We recognise and share society’s concerns about the level of antibiotic use in human and livestock medicine,” NPA chief executive Dr Zoe Davies said. “In particular we acknowledge the risk, albeit small, of antibiotic resistance developing in bacteria in pigs and this resistance spreading to humans.”
According to the NPA the Pig Industry Antibiotic Stewardship Programme will involve six strands:
1. Capture and collate antibiotic use data recorded on pig farms.2. Benchmark each farm’s antibiotic use against other farms of a similar type.3. Extend education in effective disease control strategies.4. Reduce antibiotic use, consistent with responsible human and food-animal medicine.5. Promote veterinary prescribing principles to strictly limit the use of antibiotics of critical importance to human health.6. Appoint Stewardship Commissars who will continually review industry’s use of antimicrobials and champion initiatives.
“Although antibiotic resistance in humans is largely caused by over-use and misuse of antibiotics in human medicine, the British pig industry has a duty to ensure it does not contribute to the problem,” NPA senior policy adviser Dr Georgina Crayford said.
“Overall sales of antibiotics for use in livestock in the United Kingdom sit mid-range compared to other European Union countries. We acknowledge the current perception that antibiotic use in our pig industry may be higher than in some other countries, but we don’t have any data to demonstrate what our actual on-farm usage is, hence the need for action.”
The NPA will be working with the Pig Veterinary Society, AHDB Pork and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to progress its initiatives.
Data will be collected through the industry’s newly introduced online medicines book, created by AHDB Pork with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
When the electronic medicines book has been sufficiently populated, producers will be able to benchmark their use of antibiotics with anonymised data from other farms of the same type, and to work with their vets to drive down overall use.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
