Veterinary experts have warned that budget cuts by the UK government could undermine the country's ability to detect antibiotic resistance in farm livestock, according to The Guardian report.

The government's chief public health official, Professor Dame Sally Davies, has also cautioned that the development of germs, which are resistant to even the most potent antibiotics, is one of the biggest global health threats.

These concerns arose as the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which oversees agriculture and animal health, has accepted deep cuts in its spending.

"With the Defra cuts, ministers have to choose what it is most important to spend on. The question of antibiotic use should be one of their top ten risk assessments", said John Fitzgerald, the secretary general of the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance.

In April, the World Health Organisation saidthat the over-use of antibiotics had meant they had lost their effectiveness at fighting infections in every country in the world.

Although the current development is of a major concern, some vets have claimed there was little evidence to suggest that increasing antibiotic resistance in livestock as a major threat to human health in the UK. Still, there remains a worry of places in the world where antibiotic use is largely unregulated, or regulations going unenforced.

"In the absence of good international controls, there are areas in the world that have less control, and this is a real issue. There are significant gaps we have to work on together," said Professor Stuart Reid, principal of the Royal Veterinary College.

In the meantime, Fitzgerald has supported the controversial rise of "megafarms" where hundreds of cattle, chickens or pigs are kept in vast warehouses.  He believed such facilities will help to control the occurrence of animal disease, despite concerns that keeping many animals in one place could intensify any outbreak.

"Megafarms are not using more (antibiotics) per animal. They are bigger but much more hygienic (than other farms), they are better controlled, and significantly better designed to make sure of optimum conditions to prevent disease," said Fitzgerald, adding that the facilities' owners have vested interest for tighter biosecurity without the need for drugs.