WHO issues new recommendations for animal antibiotic use
The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that farmers and the food industry stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that farmers and the food industry stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals. The new WHO recommendations aim to help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics that are important for human medicine by reducing their unnecessary use in animals. According to WHO, in some countries 80% of total consumption of medically important antibiotics is in the animal sector, largely for growth promotion in healthy animals.
A systematic review published in The Lancet Planetary Health found that interventions that restrict antibiotic use in food-producing animals reduced antibiotic-resistant bacteria in these animals by up to 39%. This research directly informed the development of WHO’s new guidelines.
WHO recommends an overall reduction in the use of all classes of medically important antibiotics in food-producing animals, including complete restriction of these antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention without diagnosis. Healthy animals should only receive antibiotics to prevent disease if it has been diagnosed in other animals in the same flock, herd, or fish population.
Where possible, sick animals should be tested to determine the most effective and prudent antibiotic to treat their specific infection. Antibiotics used in animals should be selected from those WHO has listed as being “least important” to human health, and not from those classified as “highest priority critically important.” These antibiotics are often the last line, or one of limited treatments, available to treat serious bacterial infections in humans.
“The WHO guidelines are not in alignment with U.S. policy and are not supported by sound science,” wrote Chavonda Jacobs-Young, acting chief scientist at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), in response to the WHO recommendations. “The recommendations erroneously conflate disease prevention with growth promotion in animals.”
Current U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy states that medically important antibiotics should not be used for growth promotion in animals. However, the agency allows for the use of antimicrobial drugs in treating, controlling, and preventing disease in food-producing animals under the professional oversight of licensed veterinarians. Jacobs-Young believes the WHO recommendations would impose unnecessary and unrealistic constraints on the veterinarians’ professional judgment.
“USDA agrees that we need more data to assess progress on antimicrobial use and resistance, and we need to continue to develop alternative therapies for the treatment, control, and prevention of disease in animals,” wrote Jacobs-Young. “We remain committed to addressing antimicrobial resistance in people and animals. We will continue to work with the WHO, World Organization for Animal Health, and Food and Agriculture Organization to promote antibiotic stewardship to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.”
WHO press release