Drug-resistant bacteria a ‘growing health problem’

Farmers and vets need to be incentivised to promote the prudent use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents in food production, according to a new report.

Sanctions should be imposed where antimicrobials are used imprudently, in order to lessen their use in the food chain, the report into the growing public health problem of antimicrobial resistance suggests.

Issues around the possible overuse of antimicrobials arise particularly in the pig industry, where Irish farmers give their animals up to four times as much antibiotics as Danish farmers, according to the report by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

Half of the 100 tonnes of antimicrobials used in the Irish food industry each year are given to intensively farmed pigs, it says. A 2011 study found evidence of the widespread medication of feed for pigs as a preventative measure.

The report by the authority’s scientific committee recommends that the requirement for antimicrobial agents should be reduced by improved animal husbandry and disease prevention measures. Use could also be minimised by ensuring it is targeted on specific animals rather than on entire herds or flocks.

Drug-resistant infections already cost more than 25,000 lives in the EU annually, but international concern about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) grew last month after scientists in China discovered bacteria that were resistant to what were considered “antibiotics of last resort”. Drug-resistant bacteria could account for an additional 10 million deaths a year by 2050 unless tackled, a recent UK report estimated.

In Ireland, AMR was formally recognised as a risk in the Government's national risk assessment published last year, and Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has established an interdepartmental committee to tackle the problem.

In jeopardy

Prof Martin Cormican, a microbiologist at University Hospital Galway and a member of the scientific committee, says the advances achieved through the use of antimicrobial agents are now seriously in jeopardy because of the spread of resistant bacteria.

“The documents highlight that if the level of AMR continues to rise, it will become increasingly difficult and expensive to control and treat infections in medical care and more difficult to maintain animal health and welfare.”

Hospitals are being asked to redouble efforts to limit antibiotic use but the widespread use of antibiotics to treat animals has also come under the spotlight.

The authority’s report admits the overall importance of the food chain in contributing to AMR in humans is unclear and data on the use of drugs in agriculture is often lacking.

Drug-resistant bacteria may persist in the environment for long periods when animals are no longer present, the report notes. Crops may be contaminated through the spreading of manure or municipal sludge, or through contaminated irrigation water.