The use of antibiotics in agriculture, which is causing certain bacteria to develop resistance to drugs, must be cut, according to recommendations released Tuesday by a report commissioned by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
The issue must be addressed globally in order to ensure that the amount of antibiotics being used in agriculture and being dispersed in the environment is minimized, Xinhua News reported.
"It's time for policymakers to act on this," economist Jim O'Neill, who heads the commission, told The Guardian. "We need to radically reduce global use of antibiotics, and to do this we need world leaders to agree to an ambitious target to lower levels, along with restricting the use of antibiotics important to humans."
Existing data on antibiotic use vary widely because of lack of efficient data collection in some countries. At present, the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance estimates global antibiotic consumption in agriculture at 63,000 tons to 240,000 tons.
These figures are forecast to rise by 67 percent from 2010 to 2030, with BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations increasing their antibiotic use by 99 percent within the same time frame.
Surprisingly, in some countries, antibiotic use for animals exceeds that for humans. In the U.S., more than 70 percent of antibiotics considered as "medically important" by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are used in agriculture. In other countries, more than 50 percent of antibiotics are used for livestock, according to the report.
"I find it staggering that in many countries, most of the consumption of antibiotics is in animals rather than humans," O'Neill said. "This creates a big resistance risk for everyone, which was highlighted by the recent Chinese finding of resistance to colistin, an important last-resort antibiotic that has been used extensively in animals."
There are three possible interventions for the problem: setting a global goal in reducing antibiotic use for agriculture, developing standards to lessen the waste that is released in the environment, and setting up efficient monitoring systems for antibiotic use in animals.