by Kayode Oladipo
Penalties
for exceeding the official limits of antibiotic use have reportedly spurred a
steady decline in the use of antibiotics in livestock production in Denmark.
Brigitte
Borck Høg, a
specialist advisor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has cited this
reduction in antibiotic use as important. He explained that as antibiotics are
used as a last resort in treating humans, they also should be used in
veterinary care only if all other means fail.
The
Danish Programme for surveillance of antimicrobial consumption and resistance
in bacteria from animals, food and humans (DANMAP), reported a 14% annual
decline in antibiotic usage between 2013 and 2017, this approximates to about
16t worth of antibiotics.
The
reduction was encountered mainly in pig production which accounts for over 85%
of Denmark’s meat production, with antibiotic doses pegged down by over 4% in
2017 compared to the previous year.
Recent
statistics taken by the European Union (EU) show that the drug consumption in
Denmark’s livestock farming in 2016, at 40.8 mg/kg PCU was less than one-third
of the corresponding average of the entire EU which was 124.6 mg/kg PCU*.
The
Danish Association of Agriculture and Food’s Yellow Card programme which
penalizes offenders who exceed antibiotic limits has been identified by Jan
Dahl, veterinarian and chief consultant in the Danish Association of
Agriculture and Food as a major cause of the decline in antibiotic use in
livestock production.
*PCU, Population Control Unit is a
unit of measurement developed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to monitor
antibiotic use and sales across Europe.
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