A GUIDE TO ANTIBIOTICS IN LIVESTOCK

Tetracyclines

account for 43.5% of antibiotic use in animals. They are used for mass medication in animal feed or drinking water of pigs and poultry; to control respiratory diseases in pigs and poultry; E coli and salmonella in chickens; pleuropneumoniae and streptococcal infections in pigs; respiratory disease in calves.

Penicillins,

such as amoxicillin and cloxacillin, account for 19.9%. These are used for mass medication in animal feed or drinking water of pigs and poultry; widely used in the dairy industry for treating and preventing mastitis; in pigs and poultry for respiratory and intestinal infections; meningitis in pigs; necrotic enteritis in poultry.

Sulfonamides and trimethoprim

account for 14.5% and are used for bacterial pneumonia, bacterial scours, coccidiosis, foot rot, calf diphtheria and acute mastitis.

Macrolides

account for 10.3%. These are used in pigs for pneumonia, swine dysentery and other intestinal infections; in poultry for respiratory diseases and necrotic enteritis.

Fluoroquinolones

Antibiotics of last resort, they are used in poultry, pigs and cattle for respiratory and intestinal infections (including post-weaning diarrhoea); in cattle for mastitis. RUMA says they account for fewer than 1% of antibiotics used to treat livestock.

Colistin

This is another last-resort antibiotic used in human medicine for treatment of life-threatening infections that are resistant to most other antibiotics. It is used for mass medication in pigs and poultry for treating and preventing intestinal E coli infections; and for treating intestinal infections in cattle.