Antibiotic resistance has become a serious problem in livestock farming in recent years. Poland is among the top five countries in the European Union in terms of the amount of antibiotics administered to livestock.
Hundreds of tons of antibiotics per year
The United Nations has identified growing antibiotic resistance as a major problem of modern civilization in terms of human health The overuse of antibiotics in pig, cattle and poultry farming is a great threat, as it leads to increasing bacterial resistance. As a result, antibiotics stop working and infections become increasingly difficult to treat. This is because bacteria “learn” how to protect themselves against them and develop so-called antibiotic resistance.
According to information from Greenpeace, nearly 800 tons of antibiotics were administered to farm animals in Poland in 2018. Our country ranks 4th in the EU in this regard.
Poor breeding conditions often including too little space per animal, lack of access to fresh air, failure to follow basic rules of bioassurance generate the risk of infection in the herd. Under such conditions, bacteria have ideal conditions to spread and transmit infections from one animal to another. Antibiotics are given as a remedy for everything, which is a common and unfortunately wrong practice.
In such conditions, bacteria have ideal conditions to spread and transmit infection from one animal to another.
Do not overuse antibiotics!
The problem of antibiotic resistance will not be solved with a pill. T o curb the unfavorable phenomenon, it is necessary to limit the use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine, reduce the scale of animal breeding and conduct extensive awareness-raising campaigns on the use of antibiotics.
The use of antibiotics in breeding should be limited to situations where animals actually need treatment. And what is the practice? It often happens that when a disease is found in one animal in a herd, antibiotics are given prophylactically to all of them. Meanwhile, only sick individuals under veterinary supervision should be treated.
What can reduce the use of antibiotics?
Certainly the adherence to the principles of bioassurance matters. Systematic disinfection of the kennel allows to reduce the number of microorganisms in the environment on an ongoing basis. We should add agents with active silver, such as preparations from the SILVECO line, that are highly effective in combating pathogens.
Good practices
Some European countries are taking intensive steps against antibiotic resistance. For example, the United Kingdom. The British swine industry has significantly reduced the use of antibiotics in the treatment of pigs thanks to effective cooperation between farmers and veterinarians. It has reduced their use on farms by 20% in 2022, and by as much as 75% since 2015.
