World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the UN’s global leaders believe that the overuse of antimicrobial drugs in food animals is causing a “silent pandemic”, and asked for a significant and urgent reduction in the amounts of antimicrobial drug usage, including antibiotics, in food animals. According to the statement, drug resistance is already the main culprit of human deaths globally every year. But critics say the statement is “a real missed opportunity”, indicating its failure to put a limit on the antibiotics used for livestock growth promotion.
Drugs that are vital for humans are being used in huge quantities in animal production, resulting in a far higher possibility of drug-resistant bacteria and viruses emerging. Hence, some of the most significant drugs will become ineffective against common infectious diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhea, with high death rates. Antimicrobial drugs are used in food production globally, and are “administered to animals to not only treat and prevent disease in veterinary purposes but also promote growth in healthy animals”.
Thomas Van Boeckel, an antimicrobial resistance, disease, and livestock production systems scientist, claimed that “Although commendable, the statement lacks a clear target for reduction and it does not say “quantitatively what they mean by significant”. He said the targets must be specific for each country. “It would be unfair to impose strict targets on developing countries.” But, he said, developed countries could meet a target of using less than 50mg of active antibiotic ingredient per kilogram of animal product. However, according to a 2017 paper he co-authored, many EU countries are using more than 50mg.
Van Boeckel’s 2017 paper found that implementing a 50mg of antimicrobials global cap, per kilogram of meat raised, per year could decrease the total use by 64%. Cóilín Nunan, a scientific adviser at the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics claimed that “this statement is far too cautious and there is no purpose and not even a call for an end to the antibiotics used for livestock growth promotion.” And most disappointing is that the statement about intensive farming, the underlying cause of animal disease and consequently antibiotic use, is let off the hook.
The vision is to “put a step forward where food in supermarkets will be labeled NHA, which means no human antibiotics” but it “will take, time, money, effort, and global policy”.
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