Campaigners are calling on the UK government to act on its promises to improve farm antibiotic laws amid new EU legislation banning all forms of routine antibiotic use for livestock.
From today, farmers on the continent will no longer be allowed to give preventative group antibiotic treatments or use antibiotics to mask standards for farm animals.
This will remain legal in the UK, with campaigners from the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics (ASOA) warning this threatens to undermine recent improvements and increases the risk of antibiotic resistance.
Figures show that British farmers and veterinary officials have voluntarily reduced their antibiotic use by 52 percent in recent years.
In Australia, a country the UK has sealed a trade deal with, antibiotic use in poultry is 16 times higher than in UK and use in pigs is nearly three times higher.
But the new EU legislation goes a step further, banning imports of meat, dairy, fish and eggs that have been produced using antibiotics to stimulate rapid growth in the animals. This remains legal in the UK.
Antibiotic resistance is increasing at a faster rate than previously reported. According to The Lancet, in 2019 it was directly responsible for the deaths of more than one and a quarter million people worldwide.
The overuse of antibiotics in humans and farm animals is to blame for this crisis, scientists say. Worldwide, about two thirds of antibiotics are used in livestock.
The EU legislation was agreed in 2018, and since then the UK government has repeatedly said that it largely supported the new rules and would introduce similar laws.
However, over three years later the government has still not published its own legislative proposals for ending excessive farm antibiotic use.
It remains legal in the UK to give antibiotics to farm animals routinely, rather than when they are sick or have an infection, and to import animal foods produced with antibiotic growth promoters.
The ASOA has written to Defra Secretary George Eustice urging the government to act swiftly to improve the UK’s farm antibiotic laws in line with the EU.
Cóilín Nunan, ASOA's scientific advisor, said that 'much larger' cuts in farm antibiotic use could still be achieved in the UK if the government introduced new laws.
"If government pursues a trade policy which cuts tariffs on the importation of meat and dairy produced with high antibiotic use, including the use of antibiotic growth promoters, then in order to compete British farmers could be compelled to reduce their own standards and increase their use of antibiotics.”
The government said that this year, it would be consulting on making changes to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations, including changes to the rules governing farm antibiotic use.
