The use of antibiotics in the
food industry is a less-recognized, but rapidly emerging cause of global
antibiotic resistance.
About 80% of use of medically important
antibiotics occurs in the animal sector in some countries, primarily to enhance
growth in healthy animals. They are used in food-producing animals to treat and
control bacterial infections in the presence of disease (therapeutic use), and
for disease prevention (prophylactic use) and growth promotion (subtherapeutic
use) in the absence of disease.
The widespread misuse and
indiscriminate use of antibiotics in agriculture is a major contributor to
antibiotic resistance in humans. Development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
in food-producing animals, which can then be transmitted to humans via food and
other transmission routes.
Some of the antibiotics that
are used in animals are usually the last line of treatment for critical
infections in humans or are one among the very limited number of treatment
options available for serious infections in humans.
According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), “Antimicrobial use in food-producing animals can lead to
selection and dissemination of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in
food-producing animals, which can then be transmitted to humans via food and
other transmission routes.”
The WHO published new
guidelines last year on the use of medically important antibiotics in
food-producing animals and has recommended that farmers and the food industry
stop using antibiotics routinely to promote growth and prevent disease in
healthy animals.
The new WHO guidelines call
for the following actions regarding the use of medically important antibiotics
in animals:
· Overall reduction in use of
all classes of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals
· Complete restriction of all
classes of medically important antimicrobials for purposes of growth promotion
in food-producing animals
· Complete restriction for
prevention of infectious diseases in healthy animals that have not yet been
clinically diagnosed unless animals in close vicinity have been diagnosed with
a disease that requires such use
· Medically important
antimicrobials should not be used to either to treat or control dissemination
of a clinically diagnosed infectious disease identified within a group of
food-producing animals
· Testing of sick animals, when
possible, to determine the most appropriate antibiotic for their infection
· Selection of antibiotics from
the WHO list of those that are considered “least important to human health” and
avoidance of those considered “highest priority, critically important”
· Additional recommendations
include vaccination of animals to reduce the need for antibiotics, as well as
improved production, processing, and hygiene practices.
There is also increasing
attention toward the identification and development of alternatives to
antibiotics for use in animals.
· Vaccines that could reduce the
use of medically important antibiotics
· Microbial-derived products,
such as probiotics and bacteriophage gene products
· Non-nutritive phytochemicals,
including prebiotics
· Immune-related products, such
as antibodies, microbial peptides, and cytokines
· Chemicals, including enzymes
· Regulatory pathways to enable
the licensure of alternatives to antibiotics
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
Vice President CMAAO
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart
Care Foundation of India
Immediate Past
National President IMA
