FAO: Halt the use of antibiotics to promote growth in animals
Graziano da Silva said today at a high-level UN coordination meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
"FAO advocates that antibiotics and other antimicrobials should be only used to cure diseases and alleviate unnecessary suffering. Only under strict circumstances they should be used to prevent an imminent threat of infection," he said.
Noting that antimicrobials are still being used as growth promoters, especially in livestock and acquaculture, the FAO Director-General said such practices "should be phased out immediately."
Graziano da Silva was speaking in Divonne les Bains,France at a meeting of the Interagency Coordinating Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, which includes FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
The increased use - and abuse - of antimicrobial medicines in both human and animal healthcare has contributed to an increase in the number of disease-causing microbes that are resistant to antimicrobial medicines used to treat them, like antibiotics.
This makes AMR a growing threat that could lead to as many as 10 million deaths a year and over $100 trillion in losses to the global economy by 2050, according to some studies. And in addition to public health risks, AMR has implications for food safety as well as the economic wellbeing of millions of farming households across the globe.
Graziano da Silva noted that to date only 89 countries have indicated that they have a system in place to collect data on the use of antimicrobials in farm animals and that "AMR will not be solved in a few years. It will need continuous attention and guidance"
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