Contributed by: Siddarth D & Dr. Tamhankar
While there is substantial global
pressure on rationalizing antibiotic use
in humans across the world, antibiotic use in animals is seldom touched upon.
The "Review on Antimicrobial Resistance" commissioned in the UK by
the Prime Minister to boost awareness of the economic issues surrounding the
development, spread and containment of antimicrobial resistance, recently
published a report placing a lot of the onus on the animal husbandry and
agriculture sectors for development of antimicrobial resistance in animals that
can be passed on to human beings.
The report states that while the
use of antibiotics in agricultural animals is expected to double between 2010
and 2030 on average, the use of agricultural antibiotics improves animal growth
rates by less than five percent. The report calls for global targets and standards to reduce antibiotic use in agriculture as
well as critical improvements in the surveillance of antibiotic use in
agriculture.
The report though not a scientific document, it does lay the
foundations of evolving consensus in policy to address the issue of resistance
in agriculture which is till yet to fully studied and acknowledged. It is also
a call to other countries like India to conduct its own research and come up
with policies to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance in
agriculture which is a real issue that is largely silent up till now.
