Agricultural alliance releases statement on antibiotic use

The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance has published a position statement on the preventive use of antibiotics in farm animals on its website.

Alliance Secretary General John FitzGerald said the alliance had developed the position statement to clarify how antibiotics are used in farm animals. He said the statement also sets out how antibiotics can be used responsibly and preventively in farm animals to help animal health and welfare.

The statement has been developed with the aim of helping the debate on how the European veterinary medicines legislation should be amended to help control antimicrobial resistance. The alliance has already sent a paper to the European Commission urging any decisions on new controls to be based on scientific evidence and to be proportionate to the risk to human medicine from the use of antibiotics in animals.