New rules intended to reduce the use of antibiotics in UK farming have been criticized as too lax and weaker than their equivalent under EU law.
The updated regulations come into force on Friday. They prohibit the routine use of antibiotics on farm animals, and specifically their use to “compensate for poor hygiene, inadequate husbandry or poor farm management practices”.
However, experts say there are loopholes in the legislation that have been closed under EU laws in place since 2022, which the UK would be bound by if it were still a member state.
Ministers have repeatedly promised, before and after Brexit, that farming and food standards in the UK would not be watered down after leaving the EU. However, The Guardian did revealed numerous examples of environmental rules being weakenedfrom air pollution and water quality regulations to pesticide use and agricultural emissions.
This latest difference is particularly worrying because of the overuse of antibiotics in farming serious consequences for human health. Former UK Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies said in an interview with the Guardian earlier this week that the overuse of antibiotics leading to the rise of nearly invincible superbugs which pose a serious threat to human health, rendering previously minor ailments fatal and threatening to render routine operations unsafe.
About two-thirds of antibiotics worldwide is used on farm animalsand they are often used indiscriminately either to promote growth or to try to prevent infections resulting from overcrowding, poor management, and appalling conditions on factory farms.
The EU has taken strong steps to curb overexploitation on his farms. Prof Roberto La Ragione, the head of the school of biosciences at the University of Surrey and a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, said preventing overuse was crucial.
“Antibiotics are critical to human and animal medicine, but the emergence of resistance is a global concern,” he said. “Therefore, we need to reduce their use to help prevent the emergence and spread of resistance.
“We know that animal health and welfare is inextricably linked to our own, so tackling antibiotic resistance in humans and animals is imperative, and we can all play a role, from the scientific community to pet owners, vets, doctors, pharmacists, companies, farmers and the government.”
Under the new rules, it will still be possible to prophylactically feed antibiotics to large groups of animals, a practice campaigner says is effectively the same as, and just as dangerous as, routine use. The guidelines say that this prophylaxis should only be “in exceptional circumstances”, but questions in parliament by shadow minister Daniel Zeichner prompted a response from agriculture minister Mark Spencer that it would include “where there is a risk of infection or serious consequences would have been if antibiotics had been administered.”
Coílín Nunan, a scientific adviser at the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, said this meant widespread prophylactic use on large groups of animals would still be common, because when animals are kept in highly intensive conditions there is often a significant risk of infection .
EU rules prohibit antibiotics for group prophylaxis, which are limited to an individual animal only.
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Nunan said: “Unfortunately, the government has deliberately weakened the legislation compared to the EU, and this will allow some poorly managed farms to continue to feed large groups of animals antibiotics even when no disease is present.
“We are also concerned that the ban on the use of antibiotics to compensate for inadequate animal husbandry and poor farm management practices may not be properly implemented.”
The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics wants the government to ban group prophylaxis, introduce mandatory data collection from farms about their use of antibiotics, set stricter targets for reducing farm antibiotic use and improve animal welfare and breeding standards.
UK farming and veterinary supervision remains in turmoil after Brexit. There is a shortage of veterinariansand higher workloads due to the changes to animal certification and increased bureaucracy related to animal exports and imports.
A spokesperson for the Directorate of Veterinary Medicine said: “We do not support the routine use of antibiotics, including where antibiotics are used to compensate for inadequate farming practices. However, a complete ban on prophylaxis could be harmful to animal health and welfare, while also increasing the risk of disease spreading.”
