Antimicrobial Resistance: Farm Animals

Virendra Sharma Excerpts

Wednesday 18th January 2023 Westminster Hall

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals and antimicrobial resistance.

It is a great honour and pleasure to be here this afternoon and to see you in the Chair, Mr Bone.

Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR as it is more commonly known, should be of grave concern to us all because it affects every single one of our constituents up and down the country. As we emerge from the shadow of the covid-19 pandemic, this looming health catastrophe must be treated with greater urgency. We are on the edge of yet another global human health crisis, described by the United Nations Environment Programme as a “silent pandemic”, except we will be able to vaccine our way out of this one. Worldwide, more than a million people a year are already dying from infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics. Our food system is broken, and this is the hidden public health cost of intensive factory farming.

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)]

I congratulate the hon. Member on securing the debate. The use of antibiotics in factory-farmed animals as a method of disease prevention to compensate for poor living conditions is a huge contributing factor to widespread antimicrobial resistance. The EU introduced legislation to tackle this. Does the hon. Member agree that Ministers must urgently act on their 2018 commitment to restrict preventive antibiotic use?

[Mr Sharma]

I thank the hon. Member for her positive intervention. I am sure the Minister will note it, and I will also be raising that issue later in my speech.

One of the root causes of AMR is the overuse of antibiotics on cruel factory farms. Factory farming inflicts unspeakable cruelty on billions of animals in the UK every year. It confines them to horrendous conditions often with barely enough room to turn around or lie down. This highly stressful and often barren environment can lead to injuries and severe behavioural issues, including aggression, tail biting in pigs, feather pecking and even cannibalism. The cruelty does not end there. Factory farming subjects animals to painful mutilations, such as tail docking and teeth clipping, without effective pain relief. This is not farming; it is industrialised animal cruelty. Colleagues will not be surprised to hear that these stressful, cramped and unsanitary conditions create the perfect breeding ground for disease. That brings me to my next point: the overuse of antibiotics.

[The Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries (Mark Spencer)]

I hesitate to interrupt the hon. Gentleman’s flow, because I will obviously get my say in a moment. I am sure that he does not want to slander a whole industry of farmers who take animal welfare very seriously. These are people who get out of bed very early in the morning to look after and care for their animals on a daily basis. People cannot do that unless they love and respect animals. I know that he does not mean to slander a whole industry, but I thought he might want to take a moment to reflect on some of his language and acknowledge that there are farmers up and down this country who care deeply for the welfare of their animals and who look after them in a special way.

[Mr Peter Bone (in the Chair)]

I would like to point out that you can have a go back at the Minister when it is his turn.

[Mr Sharma]

I am glad that the Minister found it necessary to intervene at this stage. I am not offended in any way, shape or form, but these are not just my views, but those of campaigners and experts in the field who have witnessed it and done the reports. We differ at this stage, but later in my speech he might change his mind and come back on a more positive note.

Antibiotics are routinely given to healthy farm animals to compensate for the cruel and frankly inhumane conditions they are kept in to prevent those animals from becoming sick. Antibiotics are being used to prop up this cruel system of suffering. Without antibiotics, these animals would simply not be able to survive these appalling conditions.

An estimated 75% of antibiotics used on UK farms are for group treatments. When used routinely, they are intended to compensate for poor hygiene and inadequate animal husbandry, and that happens despite the industry’s reduction of antibiotics used by 50% in recent years. Pigs, cows, chickens and dairy cows on factory farms are given antibiotics through their food and water on a regular basis. I ask colleagues this: if we will not take antibiotics when we are not sick, why would we administer them to healthy animals?

The problem is not confined to animal health. Right now we are seeing a rise in antibiotic resistance in animals, which is contributing to antibiotic resistance in humans. Last November I was delighted to host a reception on behalf of World Animal Protection and the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics for the launch of their report, “Life-threatening superbugs: how factory farm pollution risks human health.” The study—the first of its kind in the UK—tested waterways and slurry run-off in areas of the Wye Valley, Suffolk and Norfolk near to both factory farms and higher-welfare outdoor farms for antibiotic residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance was found in rivers and waterways in areas with high levels of factory farming. Add to that the alarming news that livestock farms in England polluted rivers 300 times last year and the urgency becomes clear.

The key findings showed that resistance was found in these waterways to the antibiotic cefotaxime, which is used to treat sepsis and meningitis, and vancomycin—I am sure that the Minister will agree I am not a scientist, nor in the medical profession, so my pronunciation may be different but the meaning is right—which is used to treat MRSA. It is alarming that both are classified by the World Health Organisation as the highest priority, critically important antimicrobials in human medicine yet far too little is being done to halt resistance to this AMR in our environment.

None of the areas near the four higher-welfare outdoor pig or chicken farms tested had higher levels of any type of resistance downstream than was found upstream, which means that no evidence was found that the higher-welfare farms are contributing AMR to superbugs in the environment. On the other hand, five of the eight intensive farms had more of at least one type of resistance downstream than upstream. The link between the overuse of antibiotics on cruel factory farms, river pollution, AMR and the threat to human health should be a warning to us all. We must follow the signs before we sleepwalk into another health emergency.

In 2022 World Animal Protection also conducted research into the presence of antimicrobial resistant enterococci in fresh pork samples sold in UK supermarkets. Now, that is a scary thought: AMR readily available on the shelves. The study looked at the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance depending on pork production method, including UK minimum legal standard farming, higher-welfare indoor farming and high-welfare outdoor organic farming. When the bacteria were found, they were then tested for susceptibility to different antibiotics—in other words, whether antibiotics were effective in killing them or slowing their growth. The result of the study indicated a potential trend: a higher AMR burden with more intensive production methods, and a lower AMR burden with higher-welfare production methods. That demonstrates a worrying link between the overuse of antibiotics on low-welfare factory farms, the food that we are consuming and the AMR to which we are exposed.

It is true that the UK has made progress in reducing its farm antibiotic use by 55% since 2014; that was prompted primarily by the threat of stricter EU regulations. However, reductions have stagnated since 2018, and much greater reductions are still achievable and desperately needed to safeguard human health. The remaining antibiotics still used on farms are predominantly routine group treatments that prop up poor welfare practices such as overcrowding, routine mutilations and early weaning. Before the EU brought in a ban, an estimated 75% of antibiotics used on UK farms were administered to groups of animals through feed or water, rather than by targeting individual animals displaying signs of illness. If we compare that with just 10% used for group treatments in Sweden and 20% in Norway, we quickly see that we have lost our position as world leader on this issue.

Industry-led measures have made a start in reducing antibiotic use on farms, but they have fundamentally failed to establish responsible and safe antibiotic use levels and how to achieve them. They have set out targets for what could be achieved without substantially raising welfare standards or changing farming methods. Now, we must push beyond this and raise welfare standards in order to create a truly sustainable food system.

Our European neighbours have already acted to curb this health risk fuelled by inhumane farming. In January 2022, the EU introduced new laws banning all forms of routine antibiotic use in farming and all preventive antibiotic treatments of groups of animals. Furthermore, EU legislation states that antibiotics can no longer be used to compensate for poor hygiene, inadequate husbandry or lack of care, or to compensate for poor farm management. The UK was a member of the EU when that legislation was agreed, and it is only right that it should be adopted into UK law. We should also consider the future ramifications for our trade with the EU should we not introduce the legislation as it continues to sail past us in reducing unnecessary antibiotic use.

I come now to the central question of this debate: when do the Government intend to introduce a ban on the routine use of antibiotics in healthy farm animals? In 2018, the then Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), stated that the UK Government planned to implement restrictions on the preventive use of antibiotics in line with the EU’s proposals. That was over four years ago, and the practice has now been illegal in the EU for just under a year. In 2019, the Conservative party’s manifesto committed to solving antibiotic resistance. However, there has still been no action.

The promised public consultation on new UK veterinary medicines regulation has been repeatedly delayed, and no new restrictions on preventive antibiotics use have been introduced. If no action is taken, it is estimated that more deaths will be attributed to AMR by 2050 than current deaths from cancer. That will be the true cost to human life. The health and wellbeing of animals, people and our planet are deeply connected. The United Nations recognises that antibiotics are used to mask poor conditions for farm animals and calls for investment in sustainable agricultural food systems. Farm animals kept in conditions where they can lead good lives do not need to be routinely given antibiotics. I ask the Minister today whether this Government will commit to a ban on the overuse of antibiotics.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Sharma]

I am sorry to interrupt the Minister, but I was looking at the time and thought that he was going to sum up. Before he does, I just wondered whether he could confirm, in clear words, that the Government will follow through on a ban on the overuse of antibiotics and ensure that there is no future for factory farming? Will he give the Government’s exact position?

[Mark Spencer]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. As I set out, we are about to consult on these matters. We have made huge progress in the right direction.

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman deliberately tried to trigger me with his use of the term “factory farming”, so I hesitate to push back too robustly. However, I will say to him that farmers up and down this country genuinely love the animals that they care for. The level of animal welfare in this country is equal to that in any country in the world. I think UK farmers will take offence at some of the phrases that he has used today. Maybe that highlights that as an industry and as a sector we have not been as good at connecting with our consumers as we should have been, so there are many consumers out there who are not aware of the work that takes place on UK farms and the high welfare standards that exist on them.

As a DEFRA Minister, I am enormously proud of the work that the sector does up and down this country in looking after the welfare of its animals and making sure they are cared for, well fed and the healthiest they can be. The UK Government will be there with them and working with them on this journey, alongside vets, farmers and consumers, to make sure that we tackle the challenges that we face.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Sharma]

Thank you, Mr Bone, for letting me have a few more minutes in which to speak.

Before I say thank you and sum up, I assure the Minister that we have no intention of criticising the majority of the farmers. They are genuine, honest, decent farmers. I come from a farming background—my family back in India were farmers—so I understand the role of farmers and their approach. I mean no offence to them. However, there is a tiny minority of farmers about whom we have evidence from the organisations that produced the reports referred to today, so we know that there is an element in the farming community that behaves in the way I mentioned. It was not an attack on the credentials or credibility of most farmers. I wanted to make sure that was clear.

I very much thank all Members who have participated in this important debate today. The cruelty that millions of animals trapped in inhumane factory farms are exposed to every day in the UK is inexcusable in a country that prides itself on animal welfare. The overuse of antibiotics to compensate for appalling farming conditions is leading to antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, in both animal and human health.

The United Nations Environment Programme has described the spread of antibiotic resistance as a pandemic hiding in plain sight. Quite simply, we are sitting on a ticking timebomb. The health and wellbeing of animals, people and our planet are interdependent. Poor animal health and welfare in factory farming negatively affect food safety and our environment. Ending factory farming will help to curb the rise of AMR in farm animals and conserve the lifesaving medical interventions we rely on today. It will prevent millions of deaths and lead to improved animal welfare standards.

It is disappointing that the Minister has not committed in today’s debate to a ban on the overuse of antibiotics, despite compelling and concerning arguments that the overuse of antibiotics impacts not only his constituents but every constituent in this country. I urge him and the Government to reconsider their position, to follow through on a ban on the overuse of antibiotics and to ensure that there is no future for factory farming.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals and antimicrobial resistance.