Paris, France – The use of antimicrobials in animals across the world has shown an overall decrease of 27% between 2016 and 2018, according to the data reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE).
Similar progress has been found in the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. For long a common way to enhance productivity in animals raised for human consumption, the use of antibiotics in healthy animals to boost growth is no longer a practice in nearly 70% of the reporting countries.
Antimicrobial drugs, such as antibiotics, rank amongst humanity’s most spectacular achievements. They paved the way to better living conditions for humans and animals. Yet many of these life-saving drugs are losing their efficacy against numerous microbes. The phenomenon is known as ‘antimicrobial resistance’.
Partially a natural process, antimicrobial resistance can be greatly accelerated by the overuse or misuse of antimicrobials, which can exert selective pressure for pathogens with resistance traits to survive and thrive. These “superbugs” can then travel through waterways, soil and air, infecting all living beings, regardless of their species, along the way.