In a report relating to 2015 published on Monday 16 October, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirms the trend of decreasing sales of veterinary antibiotics in most European countries.
Between 2011 and 2015, sales of antibiotics to treat animals fell by 13.4%. A drop in sales of at least 5% was noted in 15 countries. However, eight countries recorded an increase of more than 5%. Per kilo of meat produced, Europe’s largest consumers of antibiotics are, in descending order: Cyprus, Spain, Italy and Hungary. “The substantial decline in the sales of antimicrobials for food-producing species observed for some countries indicate that there is also a potential for a decrease in other countries”, the report states.
Commission wants to act
At the end of June, the European Commission adopted a European action plan on antimicrobial resistance (see EUROPE 11819). In addition, two proposals from the Commission are currently under discussion within the Council. One of these proposals relates to veterinary medicines and the other to medicated feed. Finalisation of a Council position on these two texts is among the priorities of the Estonian Presidency, which is hopeful a general approach can be reached by December. Negotiations with the European Parliament, which has already adopted its position on this issue, would, therefore, be able to begin in 2018. These texts are likely to lead to banning the preventive use of antimicrobials in animal feed and limiting the use of certain antimicrobials solely to human medicine.
The report can be found at http://bit.ly/2kSZFmo .