Investors urge fast food and pub chains to act to reduce farm antibiotics

Letter to firms including McDonald's and JD Wetherspoon raises concerns over health and damage to firms' reputations

A group of powerful City investors who together control more than $1tn in assets have written to leading fast food, pub and restaurant chains urging them to take immediate action to reduce antibiotic use in their meat and poultry supply chains.

The financiers, including Aviva Investors, Strathclyde Pension Fund and Coller Capital, are particularly concerned about the use of antibiotics classified as "critically important" to human health and the routine use of drugs on factory farms to prevent disease.