Pig producers are making progress in the sector's commitment to record and control the use of antibiotics in the industry, new data shows.
In less than two months, antibiotic data for over 1.2m pigs has already been contributed by pig producers to the British pig industry's new on-line medicine book.
"The levy-funded on-line electronic medicine book is the most important strand of the Stewardship Programme," said Dr Georgina Crayford, who leads the National Pig Association's recently-launched Pig Industry Antibiotic Stewardship Programme.
"It will allow the industry to capture and collate accurate antibiotic-use data, and this will be followed by benchmarking of each farm's antibiotic use against other farms of a similar type."
NPA recognises and shares society's concerns about the level of antibiotic use in human and livestock medicine, and it acknowledges some risk of antibiotic resistance developing in bacteria in pigs and this resistance spreading to humans.
It is urging all producers to contribute antibiotic data to the electronic medicine book, developed by the levy body AHDB Pork in association with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, and launched April 20 with the support of the Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales levy bodies.
"Recognising and addressing society's concerns about antimicrobial resistance is one of the most important challenges the pig industry has ever faced and collecting accurate data on current use is pivotal to the industry Stewardship Programme," said Dr Crayford.
To date, data for 1,240,000 growing/finishing herd pigs has been entered, along with data for 37,000 sows.
