The One Health report on human and animal antibiotic use, sales and resistance was published on 22 July. It brings together the most recently available UK data (2013) on antibiotic resistance in three key bacteria that are common to both animals and humans and details of the amount of antibiotics sold for animal health and welfare and antibiotics prescribed to humans.
The report highlights the joint responsibility of the human and animal sectors in tackling antibiotic resistance and the importance of strengthened collaboration between them.
Professor Pete Borriello, Chief Executive of the VMD said:
The One Health Report is an excellent example of joint working and forms a good basis on which we can build to coordinate and enhance the surveillance of antibiotic resistance and use across both sectors. Accurate facts and information are the foundation of understanding the problem and of measuring improvement. It is evident that there remain required improvements in harmonising methods to enable comparisons between countries of the UK and between the human and animal sectors, in understanding antibiotic use to the level of different livestock species, and in having an accurate measure of all antibiotics sold for human use.
The report is available on www.gov.uk