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Responsible
Antibiotics Use
The
Animal Health Industry's Commitment To
Understanding the Causes of Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic
resistance is a concern to all of us.
We are all consumers and potentially patients. It is important for the community at large that we try to understand
and manage the challenge of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Because no-one wants to go back to the situation
pre-antibiotics, where diseases we consider to be simple
were, in fact, killers. Antibiotics are a precious resource
in the fight against disease and we must do what we
can to ensure that they remain a potent weapon.
The animal health industry is committed to playing
its part.
But
antibiotic resistance is a complex matter.
There is no one simple solution because experience
does not point to a consistent set of facts.
Consider the following:
- Strains
of resistant tuberculosis - a disease that can affect
both humans and animals - have emerged in recent
years. At
first glance, it is easy to assume that these could
have been caused by treating tuberculosis (TB)-infected
animals with antibiotics. But in fact, an animal that is diagnosed with TB receives no
antibiotic treatment and is slaughtered immediately. So there is not even a remote possibility that this could be
the cause.
- Equally,
the emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci
(VRE) in humans has been supposed to be linked to
the use of a related product, avoparcin, in animals.
But the VRE strain is particularly virulent
in hospitals across the USA - where avoparcin has
never been used.
This must, at the very least, cast a little
doubt on that assumption.
- Antibiotic
resistance is assumed to be solely the result of
exposing the bacteria to the antibiotic concerned,
resulting in a kind of natural selection.
If this were solely the case, then it would
be logical to assume that the first types of antibiotics
- therefore, those that have been used for the longest
number of years - would have created the most resistance.
This is not the case.
It is often the first kinds of antibiotics
that remain effective, certainly in veterinary medicine.
And
that is the main challenge facing all of us today
- to put all of our efforts into trying to understand
what causes antibiotic resistant bacteria so that
we can ensure that our actions respond to these causes. In order to set priorities, the most important causes have
to be evaluated and action directed towards addressing
these causes.
In
1998, the European authorities organised a high-level
scientific conference to address the issue.
It resulted in a series of recommendations,
which, if implemented by all involved in both human
and animal medicine, would aim at tackling anti-microbial
resistance.
The
real challenge is that there is no one cause and no
one solution for antibiotic resistance.
Also, there no such thing as zero risk, because
antibiotics - like the bacteria they seek to kill
- are naturally occurring, living organisms.
That means they, too, can change and evolve.
The
reaction of the authorities, and indeed the reaction
of all of us, is that action needs to be taken.
Of course it does!
Antibiotics are a precious resource and their
power as weapons against bacterial disease needs to
be protected.
But in order to achieve this, the right action
needs to be taken.
If we take strong action and then wait to see
if it works, then take another strong action and wait
to see if this works, we are creating other problems
without being sure of any benefits, because every
action has other - intended or unintended - consequences.
Sick
animals need to have medicines (if they should
get sick) because of the following things:
-
Consumers have the right to expect that animals, whose
produce they eat, are free of disease;
- The public has the right to be protected from
diseases that can be passed from animals to humans;
- Animals have the right to be healthy
and have access to these medicines if they fall ill;
-
Farming must remain profitable to remain sustainable;
and
- Farmers have the right to be able to
treat their livestock with a registered, approved
medicines should the animals fall ill.
Antibiotics
must be used correctly and prudently. That's
why one of the main issues for FEDESA has been to
educate the people also involved (Farmers, Veterinarians,
etc.) to make sure they know the correct way to use
these precious medicines.
It
is in no-one's interest for antibiotics to cease to
become effective. Not for the farmers, not for
the consumers, not for our industry, not for the vets,
not for the animals! That is why we are committed
to playing our part in finding the scientific cause
of antimicrobial resistance and finding the right
actions based on this.
Additional
information:
Responsible
antibiotic use:
Visby Conference 2001 "The Microbial Threat".
(June '01)
IFAH-Europe
Dossier 9: Antibiotics for Animals - A FEDESA
perspective on Antibiotics, Animal Health and the
Resistance Debate. (updated in December 2000 - FEDESA
is now IFAH-Europe)
IFAH-Europe
Kit on Antibiotics: Antibiotics & Animals.
European
Scientific Conference: The Use of Antibiotics
in Animals - Ensuring the Protection of Public Health.
(March 24-26, 1999 - France)
Proceedings
of the FAIP Workshop: EU directive for biotechnological
inventions for farm animal production. (May 29, 1998
- Denmark)
HAN
report: Human Health and Antibiotic Growth Promoters
(AGPs): Reassessing the Risk.
Press
articles.
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