November 28, 2016

UK targets 'realistic' antibiotic usage for pig producers

AHDB Pork has urged UK pig producers to send in their 2015 on-farm antibiotic usage data before the yearend, to help the industry set realistic reduction targets this spring.

"These reduction targets, which will run for 10 years from 2018, will add to mounting government pressure on producers", said Martin Smith, veterinary team manager of the UK Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board's pork division.

"The industry will be setting these targets in less than six months and they could have a big impact on production. At the moment, we're in the dark about usage as we only know total antibiotic sales data for pigs and poultry combined", he added.

Smith said the data sent by producers could be used to benchmark and help set realistic and achievable targets. 

AHDB Pork said that producers may send their antibiotic usage data in any form to their KE manager or the pig hub email address, adding the data would be uploaded anonymously to the electronic medicines book (eMB-Pigs). The eMB-Pigs website enables producers to provide aggregated and anonymous records of on-farm antibiotic usage.