{"id":2237,"date":"2022-02-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.farmersweekly.co.nz\/declining-antibiotic-sales-a-positive-trend\/"},"modified":"2022-05-04T13:34:27","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T01:34:27","slug":"declining-antibiotic-sales-a-positive-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/declining-antibiotic-sales-a-positive-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"Declining antibiotic sales a positive trend"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

New Zealand Food Safety deputy-director generalVince Arbuckle says the declining use of antibiotics in animals is important in the goal to reduce antimicrobial resistance.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Antibiotic sales have continued to decline following a trend that started in 2017. The declining trend is good news and represents an active effort across the production animal, horticultural and veterinary sectors to reduce antibiotic use.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe trend gives us confidence that people are understanding the importance of reducing the risk of developing antimicrobial resistance,\u201d New Zealand Food Safety deputy-director general Vince Arbuckle says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAntibiotics are an important tool and we want to ensure they are effective in future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The 2019 Antibiotic Agricultural Compound Sales Analysis report was released at the end of last year. Declining sales were reported for most classes in the reporting period and generally any increases were minimal and well justified.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIts important antibiotics are only used when they are needed and that it\u2019s the right type for the infection present as developing resistance is a real risk, especially if they are used inappropriately,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe risk of developing antimicrobial resistance is significant to human and animal health. When resistance develops against antibiotics, bacterial diseases that would otherwise be treatable can result in life-threatening illnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Because of the incidence of antibiotic resistance worldwide and the fact that there is limited development of new antibiotics, it is extremely important to preserve the effectiveness of the antibiotics that are available.<\/p>\n

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The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) monitors yearly sales of antibiotic-based agricultural compounds. Although it is not a direct measure of antibiotic use, monitoring and analysing sales trends over time gives some insight into when and how antibiotics are being used.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvaluating sales trends indicates whether antibiotics are being used appropriately and whether the existing regulatory controls remain appropriate and any notable changes can be investigated,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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The 2019 decline is due to decreases in sales for 11 out of the 16 antibiotic classes and subgroups that are monitored. The remaining four groups either had minor increases or their sales are so consistently small they contribute a negligible amount to the overall sales.<\/p>\n

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The largest percentage of total sales in 2019 was from the class polypeptides, which made up 38.1% of the total. Almost all of these sales were for the compound zinc bacitracin, which is primarily used in pigs and poultry for the management of a gut infection, enteritis.<\/p>\n

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The second-largest volume of antibiotics sold in the reporting year was penicillin. Total sales were 29.3% of overall sales and around half were for the compound penicillin G procaine. Most of the penicillin G procaine sold in 2019 was in multi-species injectable formulations used in dogs, cats, horses, ruminants and pigs, primarily for the treatment of respiratory, gastrointestinal and local infections.<\/p>\n

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Intramammary product sales decreased 3.5% in 2019, which is made up of dry cow therapy (DCT) and lactating cow therapy (LCT) treatments. Although the 2% decline in the total dairy cattle population in the same year may have contributed it is still promising to see the reduction in sales.<\/p>\n

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The numbers suggest 151,000 fewer cows were treated from DCT at the end of lactation. This reflects the efforts from the sector to move away from blanket therapy of treating all cows regardless of whether there is mastitis present.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFarmers are recognising the importance of moving away from treating the whole herd with antibiotics to manage mastitis to selectively using antibiotics with alternatives like teat sealants,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s good news for everyone as it reduces the overall use of antibiotics and will lead to better herd health management.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Monitoring sales trends started in 2004 and has become part of NZ\u2019s Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan. The plan was jointly developed by the Ministry of Health, MPI and representatives from across the human health, animal health and agriculture sectors in 2017.<\/p>\n

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It delivers on the World Health Organisation requirement for all countries to have an action plan to address the challenges that antimicrobial resistance presents to human health, animal health, welfare and production.<\/p>\n

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The Action Plan has also led to the development of a number of industry initiatives to reduce antibiotic use in the dairy cattle, pig and poultry sectors. As these initiatives gain momentum, they are being reflected in the overall decline of antibiotic sales for use in production animals and can be expected to continue to influence sales declines in future.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s promising to see the decline and a clear reflection of the efforts of the New Zealand agricultural sector, which will continue to benefit humans and animals into the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The steady decline in antibiotic sales provides a positive outlook for its future effectiveness and shows farmers are recognising the importance of moving away from treating the whole herd with antibiotics.\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[111,28,110,42],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t