The Northern Ireland Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the U.K. Food Standards Agency have launched a five-year action plan to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR), they announced Thursday, May 16.
The plan, Changing the Culture "One Health," is intended to endorse the responsible use of antimicrobials. “Particularly antibiotics in human medicine, in veterinary medicine, in food producing animals and in pets. The spread of antimicrobial resistance in the environment is also of increasing concern,” the report from DAERA said.
Movements toward antibiotic free production have been popular among multiple species as concerns for human consumption have continued to escalate. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael McBride was quoted in the before mentioned report saying, “As certain antibiotics lose their ability to kill particular strains of microbe, and if we cannot develop new drugs that can beat those bugs, then by the year 2050 we can expect about 10 million deaths per year, worldwide, from drug-resistant infections.”
He further explained that statistics like the one above are the reason government agencies, public bodies, the research industry and other entities within the feed sector are working together. He expressed concern for antibiotics not working for human use during medical procedures.
“In 2015, it is estimated that 33,000 people died because of AMR in Europe and this figure might be an underestimation. Reducing our use of antibiotics is one of the best ways we can tackle this growing crisis,” he said.
Other European efforts on AMR
Data released in February, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) revealed that antimicrobials used to treat diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans, such as Campylobacteriosis and Salmonellosis, are becoming less effective.
One Year On, a report from the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) which, since 1997 has brought various producer groups together to promote food safety standards, animal health and welfare, reviews the livestock industry’s 12-month progress on industry-led targets for antibiotic use, shows the U.K. poultry meat sector has achieved an 82 percent reduction in total use of antibiotics in the six years to 2017, and a 91 percent reduction in the use of fluoroquinolones (highest priority critically important antibiotics, or HP-CIAs).
Antimicrobial resistance, more than a human concern?
Drug-resistance is the result of over using or abusing of antibiotics in both humans and animals intended for human consumption. As countries continue trying to fight AMR for the better of their citizens, trade and restriction conversations could come to the forefront of debate.
“Antimicrobial resistance to veterinary medicines not only affects human, animal health and welfare, but could also severely affect the agricultural industry as a whole through its potential impact on trade,” said Chief Veterinary Officer Robert Huey in the report.
