The European Medicine Agency’s (EMA) has failed to recommend a ban on the use of colistin, a last-resort human antibiotic, in livestock farming.
This is despite the EMA’s assessment in a new report that resistance to colistin is “likely” to be transferring from farm animals to humans in the European Union.
The EMA’s recommendation comes as David Cameron announced new measures to tackle antibiotic resistance in England, including strict oversight - and possible bans - on farm use of antibiotics which are critical for human health, such as colistin, and a target for reducing the overall use of antibiotics.
Instead of banning colistin use in livestock, the EMA wants a target to be set which would result in an overall reduction in use of about two thirds.
However, even if the target is achieved, over 100 times more colistin could still be used in farm animals than in humans in the EU.
The emergence of colistin resistance is considered to be a major step towards completely untreatable human infections.
Despite being toxic, colistin has become a last-resort drug used for serious human infections that do not respond to treatment with other antibiotics due to resistance.
'Mass medication of farm animals'
Cóilín Nunan, scientific adviser to the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics, said: "The European Medicine Agency is being grossly irresponsible and putting people’s lives at risk by supporting the mass medication of farm animals with a last-resort human antibiotic.
"While we welcome the government’s decision to tackle the overuse of farm antibiotics, if the Prime Minister is serious about protecting critically important antibiotics, he must immediately ban the use of colistin in farm animals."
"We believe that the targets announced by Mr Cameron are not nearly ambitious enough as it would only require a relatively small reduction from current levels.
"The Alliance is calling for much more ambitious targets, which have been endorsed by the Labour Party: to cut farm antibiotic use by 50% by 2020 and by 80% by 2025, including a target to cut the use of critically important antibiotics by 80% by 2020 and by 95% by 2025."
