COVER STORY/ANTIBIOTIC

OTHER THAN MISUSE by humans, antibiotics are used in rearing animals and to protect plants from diseases. Pressures for a profitable yield with a quick turnover have led to a record increase in global antibiotic consumption—131,109 tonnes in 2013, whch is likely to increase by 52 per cent in 2030, according to research by CDDEP. This is far more than antibiotics used in humans.

South Africa, along with its BRIC partners (Brazil, Russia, India and China), has shown the largest percentage increase in antibiotic consumption this decade. Import data for antimicrobials between 2014 and 2015 estimates procurement for animal health at 23 to 36 per cent and for human use between 74 and 77 per cent. These figures were published in South Africa’s first national

in November 2018.

In China, as much as 70 per cent of antibiotics produced are used in animals. China consumed 162,000 tonnes of antibiotics in 2013, more than half of the global total. About 52 per cent was used on livestock, which is more than that used by humans. While China is at present culling pigs to control the African Swine Fever outbreak, there is a fear that antibiotic use will rise as the country is planning a policy to promote big animal farms. In India, similar misuse is visible in the case of poultry where farmers put one-day old chicks on antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick and also for growth promotion.

Antibiotics are being misused in other ways too. Victor Yamo of the World Animal Protection in Kenya explains how in dairy farming, antibiotics are being misused to treat mastitis—inflammation of the mammary gland—instead of following animal husbandry practices. Instead of cleaning the cowsheds, farmers use large amounts of antibiotics to prevent diseases. Reportedly, dairy farmers also use antibiotics to increase the shelf life of milk. Abubakar Bala Mohammed, who has spent 25 years in veterinary practice in Abuja, says that farmers use antibiotics without

In 2019, Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) reached out to the farmers to understand existing practices of antibiotic use in crops and found that antibiotics are purchased routinely along with other agrochemicals. Jaswant Singh, a rice farmer from Fazilka in Punjab, used streptocycline on his crop despite absence of any infection. Interaction with farmers pointed towards a weaker extension machinery of state agriculture departments in the absence of which, the antibiotic use is guided by agrochemical dealers.

THE CONSEQUENCE OF this indiscriminate use is that the environment is accumulating antibiotic residues. In China, antibiotics are finding their way into the foodchain through waste products. More than 50,000 tonnes of antibiotics ended up being absorbed in the water and soil, found