UK

UK farm livestock industry welcomes new AMR action plan

Livestock

The UK Government has launched a new cross-departmental antimicrobial resistance (AMR) action plan during the World Economic Forum at Davos on January 24.

Posted on Jan 25 ,10:59

The new action plan has been welcomed by the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (RUMA) Alliance and by the National Farmer's Union.

The new five-year National Action Plan was published alongside a longer-term ‘UK AMR 20-year Vision’, which brings together ambitions from human and animal health, environment and food chain sectors.

RUMA chairman Gwyn Jones said that these reports underline the 40% reduction in antibiotic use achieved by UK livestock farming since the last strategy was published five years ago.

He said: “The new 5-year National Action Plan will support our plans to continue progress in reducing, refining or replacing antibiotic use. The chapters on food-producing animals focus on planning ahead to prevent disease wherever possible, keeping livestock healthy and ensuring appropriate and responsible use of antibiotics only where necessary to treat disease and protect animal welfare.

“There is also a strong focus on improving quality of data, a subject very much front of mind in the cattle and sheep sectors in particular at the moment.

“We are very pleased that these areas are already central to the individual sector targets developed by RUMA’s Targets Task Force in 2017. As we progress towards 2020 – when most of the targets need to be achieved – we will continue to see concerted efforts to target and eliminate endemic disease through improved use of screening and vaccines, which will undoubtedly increase animal health nationally,” he explained.

“As a consequence, we anticipate antibiotic use will continue to fall – and the aspiration expressed in the Government plan that the result will be a further 25% reduction between 2016 and 2020 is definitely achievable.”

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