Analysis: New antibiotic targets to build on impressive progress

As new data shows the UK pig sector has moved within touching distance of its 2020 antibiotic targets, ambitious new four-year targets have been announced, taking a holistic approach to the problem. 

The UK pig sector was once considered the ‘bad boy’ of the industry when it came to its use of medicines. And not entirely without justification, as habitual routine use has been, in the past, all-too-common, resulting in unnecessarily high overall industry usage.

It is a very different story today – the sector is now considered to be a pioneer in recording and reducing antibiotic use, within UK farming and on the global stage. But there is still more that can be done.

All of this was evident when the latest antibiotic usage figures, showing a continuation of the downward trend, were published alongside the next set of four-year antibiotic targets, including a further 30% reduction for the pig sector.