There is no significant change in the antibiotic treatment of food-producing animals

By: STA Date: 2024. 08. 22. 10:15

The willingness to report has improved, but there is still a lot of inaccurately recorded data regarding antibiotic treatments in food-producing animals. There is no overall change in the use of the preparations: even in 2023, category D drugs, which can be used with caution, were most often prescribed by veterinarians, but category B drugs and group treatment drugs are also used in large quantities.

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As of this year, the provision of data to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is mandatory at the EU level. The wholesale trade of antibiotic-containing veterinary medicinal products had until June 30, while the necessary data for their use in farm animals (cattle, pigs, hens and turkeys) had to be provided in the ASU (Antimicrobial Sales and Use) system by the end of September. Since January 2022, there has been a requirement in our country that all food-producing animals must report antibiotic treatment to the attending veterinarian, and from the beginning of this year, the rules for writing prescriptions have been tightened. According to Nébih’s experience, the fulfillment of the obligation to provide data is constantly improving: compared to the previous year, information was received on 16.5% more breeding codes this year, and the number of veterinarians submitting reports also increased. At the same time, the proportion of inaccurately recorded data is still high.

It can be seen from the distributor’s reports that the sales of type C preparations decreased by more than half

However, the sales and use data still do not overlap, the volume of distributed drugs in 2023 far exceeded the volume of products reported for use. In terms of the overall picture, there is no significant change in the use of antibiotic-containing veterinary medicinal products: in 2023, as in 2022, the use of products belonging to category D again prevailed, and there are still large quantities of products of category B and those used for group treatment. Containing an active ingredient that is critically important for human medicine, the so-called Reducing the use of category B drugs and shifting the predominance of group treatments towards individual, targeted therapy.

Nébih