Responsible Use of Antibiotics in Food Animals

Abstract

Antimicrobial use in food animal medicine has become an important political and scientific issue, especially in relation to the contribution that animal sourced antimicrobial resistance might play in human medicine, leading to calls at a political level for national action plans to be developed. Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have created critically important antibiotic list for human medicine and veterinary medicine, respectively. The responsible use of antibiotics in food animals and humans is essential to preserve the viability of antibiotics for use in medicine. For animals, maintaining their health is important for the production of safe food for human consumption, to meet the demands of an increasing world population that is seeking more animal sourced affordable protein in their diets.

Keywords

• antibiotics
• antimicrobial resistance
• food animals