Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential effect on the spread of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria of increased use of antibiotics in farm animals; and if she will make a statement.

Bacteria naturally adapt and find new ways to survive the effects of an antibiotic; any use of an antibiotic increases the risk that bacteria will develop resistance.

The Government continues to carry out research and surveillance to better understand the link between antibiotic use and development of resistance. Final reports from completed research projects are published via gov.uk, while results from surveillance of resistance in key zoonotic bacteria are published annually in the Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance report.