Credit where its due

‘IT’S very rare to leave a conference feeling so positive.’ That’s how a vet summed up last week’s special meeting on antibiotic resistance as he made his way home. Farmers and representatives from government and industry had joined vets at a joint meeting of the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. They had spent a day hearing how livestock farming has achieved record low usage of antibiotics. The mood was upbeat. Some headline figures had featured on the BBC news that morning – in the last two years there has been a 27 per cent drop in the amount of antibiotics bought for use in food-producing animals in the UK (from 62 mg/kg to 45 mg/kg in 2016). As a result, the livestock sector has exceeded a government target (50 mg/kg) two years early. Crucially, sales of the highest-priority antibiotics (those critically...
Source: Veterinary Record - Category: Veterinary Research Authors: Tags: Comment Source Type: research