Danish claims on farm antibiotic use are no proof says NOAH

A report claiming to link drug resistant bacteria to farm animal medicine use has been called 'inconclusive' by the National Office of Animal Health. In a paper given at the International Conference on Emerging Diseases in Atlanta, Henrik Wegener from the Danish Veterinary Laboratory proposed genetic evidence to back up his claim.

Roger Cook, NOAH director said: 'The Danish report is interesting in what it doesn't say, as well as what it does - it seems particularly convenient that these results from an official Danish Laboratory support existing Danish Government policy on animal antibiotic use. Did the researchers look at samples from countries where avoparcin is not used but vancomycin is - such as USA which has a huge vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) problem?'

In fact the Danish data may even show that livestock strains of VRE are quite distinct from human strains.

Since initial concerns about antibiotic resistance led to the Swann Report in 1969, policy in the UK and EU has been for antibiotics used as growth promoters to be confined to a select group not used in human therapy. Last December the WHO, following their major conference on antibiotic resistance, concluded that the problem in human medicine was "primarily related to the prescribing practices of health workers and to medication taking practices of patients".

Because of the growth of resistance problems in human medicine, the medical profession is now turning to classes of antibiotic which, under the Swann principles, had been reserved for animal use. Hence there are calls for a ban on the agricultural use of virginiamycin and avilamycin (both in trouble free agricultural use for decades) because doctors are now proposing to use similar drugs.

'In essence', said Mr Cook 'some microbiologists are behaving like the spoilt child which, having broken its own toys, now demands to be given those of its smaller sibling. As NOAH's own conference (1 December 1997) was told - if every veterinary and farming use of antibiotics was stopped tomorrow it would have no effect on the current resistance problem in human medicine.

'The problems can only be solved by all parties working together towards the responsible use of antibiotics', he added.

19 March 1998

Notes for Editors

1. For further information contact Roger Cook or Alison Glennon at NOAH, tel. +44 (0)181 367 3131

2. The National Office of Animal Health was formed on 1 January 1986 to represent the UK companies which research, develop, manufacture and market licensed animal health products. The association now represents 53 companies which in 1997 accounted for around 95% of the £379 million UK animal health market, with additional valuable exports.

3. The report by Henrik Wegener of the Danish Veterinary Laboratory, Copenhagen, was presented at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia.

4. The WHO report "The medical impact of the use of antimicrobials in food animals" is available on the Internet on http://www.who.ch/programmes/emc/zoo/oct97.pdf

5. The NOAH Conference 'The benefits of using antibiotics in food producing animals are greater than the risks' - Discuss' was held on 1 December 1997 at the Cavendish Conference Centre, London W1.