Livestock producers in the Netherlands are forced to reduce the use of antibiotics by 70% by 2013. These reductions in antibiotic use and changes in livestock production practices are warranted. Major steps have been made already to meet this goal by making the use of antibiotics on all farms transparent.
By Prof Dr Dik Mevius, Dept of Bacteriology and TSEs, Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen UR, Lelystad; Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University; Veterinary Drug Authority, Utrecht, the Netherlands
In the Netherlands antibiotic usage in animals is usually derived from sales data of Fidin, the Organised Dutch Veterinary Pharmaceutical Companies. These sales data are considered to provide a good estimate for antibiotic usage in animals on prescription by veterinarians. However, specification by animal species is not possible, since many products are licensed to be used in multiple animal species. Sales of antibiotics in the Netherlands increased from 300 tonnes in 1999 to almost 600 tonnes in 2007. However, in that period the use of antimicrobial growth promoters was reduced from 250 tonnes in 1998 to zero in 2006, which is the result of the ban on these substances by the European Commission. Since the number of livestock produced did not change that much, the sales data indicate that the standard antimicrobial growth promoters were in equal amount replaced by antibiotic substances prescribed by veterinarians.
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