PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Livestock: Antibiotics (13 December 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of (a) the level of antibiotic resistant bacteria associated with intensive livestock units in the UK and (b) how this level of antibiotic resistant bacteria has changed in the past five years.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

Antibiotic resistant bacteria data are collected through two methods of surveillance (clinical surveillance and monitoring). The surveillance programme serves to monitor resistance in a number of drug/bug combinations, which are a priority for human and animal health, rather than to monitor trends by type of farming systems. The harmonised monitoring produces results that are intended to be representative at a country level. The clinical surveillance relies on voluntary submission of samples by private veterinarians for diagnostic investigations to the network of government laboratories, and generates a useful indication of some of the resistance seen in the overall livestock population.

The latest data published in 2016 shows that overall, the rates of resistance have remained relatively stable for most of the bacteria and antibiotics tested. However, the level of resistance in E.coli found in chickens has started to decrease. All results from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate’s surveillance and monitoring activities are published annually in the UK-VARSS report - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/veterinary-antimicrobial-resistance-and-sales-surveillance-2016.

Answered by:
George Eustice (Conservative)
21 December 2017