Antimicrobial use in food production selects and spreads resistant bacteria

Antimicrobials are used in food-producing animals for treatment, disease prevention and, in some jurisdictions, growth promotion. Use without diagnosis, veterinary oversight or farm-level monitoring creates selection pressure and can spread resistant bacteria and resistance genes through direct contact, food, manure, water and trade.

The World Organisation for Animal Health calls for prudent veterinary use, prevention through vaccination and animal health services, and reductions in antimicrobial quantities used in animals. Evidence from Denmark, the Netherlands and China shows that use and resistance can fall, but simple bans may be undermined when growth-promotion use is replaced by routine therapeutic or prophylactic use.

This issue covers livestock and aquaculture. It excludes human prescribing and pharmaceutical manufacturing pollution.