UK risks falling behind on reducing farm antibiotics after EU ban

New restrictions on administering drugs to healthy animals come into force across EU to tackle critical overuse, but UK fails to follow suit

The reputation of British farming is at risk after its failure to follow the EU in curbing the overuse of antibiotics in healthy animals, say campaigners.

Antibiotic use is the main driver of antimicrobial resistance, one of the biggest threats to human and animal health. Reducing its use in farming is seen as critical, with about two-thirds of antibiotics globally given to animals.

From today [28 January], a ban on the administration of antibiotics to groups of healthy animals comes into force across the EU.

As a result, European farmers will be able to use antibiotics as a preventive measure only in exceptional cases when there is a high risk of infectious disease, and then only with individual animals.