Antimicrobial Resistance

Antibiotics are a cornerstone of modern medicine. Their importance to human and animal health cannot be understated, which is why antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is such an important global threat.

Antibiotics are currently the only way to treat a bacterial disease. There is currently no alternative. However, we can exploit the full spectrum of animal health tools to reduce the need for antibiotics and minimize the risk of resistance development.

By better protecting animals from the threat of disease, identifying health issues earlier and treating them quickly and responsibly, we can decrease disease levels and with it, the need for antibiotics.

This requires maximizing the long-term health benefits of tools such as vaccination, nutrition, antiparasitics, biosecurity, surveillance, diagnostics, husbandry and other animal health technologies.

Our industry has worked on this challenge for many years, and in 2019, we launched our Roadmap to Reducing the Need for Antibiotics. It offers a vision tackling AMR and outlines measurable steps we commit to undertake in the coming years.

We are committed to addressing this challenge to preserve antibiotics for future generations.

Quick facts

A 2017 University of Edinburgh study found that only reducing antibiotic use in animals but not in people as “little impact on the level of resistance in humans.”

Sales of veterinary antimicrobials have declined by 43% in the EU since 2011, over 50% in the UK since 2014, 38 in the US since 2015 and 53% in France since 2011.

The World Organisation for Animal Health recorded a 34% global reduction in mg/kg of animal antimicrobial use from 2015 to 2017

Subscribe to our newsletter

Animal health insights, information and infographics in your inbox each month. Sign up today!