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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of trends in the use of antibiotics across different food-producing animal species.

The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare. In the UK, collaborative working between government, the veterinary profession and the agriculture sectors has resulted in a 55% reduction in the sales of antibiotics for food producing animals between 2014 and 2021 to the lowest levels ever recorded (28.3 mg/kg). This, and other trends are reported in the UK’s Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales Surveillance Report 2021. Since data was first published for each sector, veterinary antibiotic prescribing has reduced by 69% in the pig sector, 81% in the turkey sector, 72% in the broiler sector, 89% in the duck sector, 50% in the laying hen sector, 55% in the gamebird sector and 69% in the trout sector. These reductions throughout the livestock sectors demonstrate how antibiotic stewardship has become an important feature of UK farm management.