August 12, 2009

The Minister of Agriculture for the Netherlands, Gerda Verburg, wants to investigate if the sale of antibiotics by veterinarians should be banned in the country.

About 20-50 percent of the income of Dutch veterinarians comes from selling antibiotics, according to the Royal Dutch Society for Veterinary Science (KNMvD).

Verburg said this may be linked to the high antibiotic use in the Dutch livestock sector. Verburg supports minimising the use of therapeutic antibiotics in the livestock sector because it may lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans.

The ban on antibiotic growth promoters has led to a reduced use of antibiotics on farms, and it is now only used as a therapeutic measure and can only be prescribed by a veterinarian.

On average, a pig in the Netherlands receives 32 doses of antibiotics per year. Denmark supplies nine doses per pig per year. In the Netherlands, antibiotics are often given to a whole animal group, even when only one animal in that group is ill.

A ban on the sale of antibiotics by veterinarians is not the only measure to reduce antibiotics use in the Dutch livestock sector, as farmers need to change their mentality, said the KNMvD.