Poultry industry drastically reducing its use of antibiotics

With growing pressure to preserve the effectiveness of the world’s limited range of antibiotics, resulting in calls to reduce their use in both the human and livestock sectors, the UK poultry meat industry has highlighted a significant drop in the sector’s usage of these antimicrobial drugs.

The British Poultry Council’s antibiotic stewardship report this week showed an 82 per cent reduction in the use of antibiotics by poultry meat producers over the past six years, with a 39.36 drop between 2016 and 2017. Between 2012 and 2017 there was a 91 per cent reduction in the use of Fluoroquinolones, an antibiotic judged to be critically important for human health.

Chairman of the British Poultry Council, John Reed, said the figures underlined the efforts made by the industry:

“Poultry is half of the meat eaten in the UK and

0 The Poultry Council has helped farmers cut use of drugs we use less than 9.7 per cent of the total antibiotics licensed for food producing animals,” said Reed.

He said the poultry council’s antibiotic stewardship programme had helped deliver the improvements by monitoring and reviewing on-farm practices and ensuring responsible use of antibiotics throughout the supply chain.

But he said: “Our farmers and veterinarians need antibiotics in their toolbox to preserve the health and welfare of our birds. Responsible use of antibiotics is about so much more than reduction targets. Zero use is neither ethical nor sustainable as it goes against farmers’ duty to alleviate pain.”

The achievement was declared “remarkable” by the UK’S Chief Veterinary Officer, Christine Middlemiss, who said: “The determination of BPC’S members to deliver responsible reductions in the use of antibiotics will help to protect and preserve the efficacy of antibiotics.”