The overuse of antibiotics in farming has been highlighted as one of the biggest threats to human health, a UN report warns.
It warned that antibiotics used on farms are spilling into the natural environment, via agricultural run-off.
The Frontiers Report states that antibiotics used to treat food-producing animals are excreted through manure, which is spread onto fields as fertiliser and can be carried into nearby lakes, streams, and oceans with other untreated agricultural runoff.
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when a microorganism evolves to resist the effects of an antimicrobial agent.
Studies say about 700,000 people globally die of resistant infections every year because available antimicrobial drugs have become less effective at killing the resistant pathogens.
The World Health Organisation has already urged farmers to stop using antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals because of the serious risks to human health.
“The warning here is truly frightening: we could be spurring the development of ferocious superbugs through ignorance and carelessness,” said Erik Solheim, chief of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), on Tuesday (5 December).
He added that studies have already linked the misuse of antibiotics in humans and agriculture over the last several decades to increasing resistance, but the role of the environment and pollution has received little attention.
'Priority action'
The Frontiers Report looks at the environmental dimension of antimicrobial resistance, finding the role of the environment in the emergence and spread of resistance to antimicrobials particularly concerning.
“This needs priority action right now, or else we run the risk of allowing resistance to occur through the back door, with potentially terrifying consequences,” stressed Mr. Solheim.
The UN has frequently stated that growing antibiotic resistance is emerging as one of the biggest global public health concerns of the twenty-first century.
As such, the UK government has recently reported a 27% drop in use of antibiotics in animals reared on British farms over the last two years in a bid to cut domestic use.
Sector-specific targets have now been developed looking at how each sector can reduce their usage of antibiotics.
While the targets each sector has set vary according to the availability of data and scope, the targets as a whole have been described as ‘positive and proactive’
