10th ESVAC report shows continued decrease in sales of veterinary antibiotics

The annual report on the European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC) published by EMA shows that European countries continue to reduce the use of antibiotics in animals. The overall sales of veterinary antibiotics in European countries dropped by more than 34% between 2011 and 2018.

Also, total sales of certain veterinary antimicrobial agents belonging to antibiotic classes that are considered critically important in human medicine noticeably decreased between 2011 and 2018. These classes include antibiotics used to treat serious infections in humans caused by bacteria resistant to most other antibiotic treatments. Sales of third- and fourth- generation cephalosporins dropped by 24%, polymyxins dropped by 70%, fluoroquinolones decreased by 4% and sales of other quinolones dropped by 74%. The use of these antibiotics in animals should be restricted to mitigate the risk to public health, according to the Antimicrobial Advice ad hoc Expert Group (AMEG) categorisation.