New testing released today has revealed extremely high levels of antibiotic-resistant E.coli bacteria found in UK supermarket chicken and pork meat.
Carried out by scientists at Cambridge University, and commissioned by the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics, the tests looked at 189 UK-origin pig and poultry meat samples from the seven largest supermarkets in the UK.
The research found soaring levels of resistance in chicken meat, with 24% of samples testing positive for ESBL E. coli, a type of E. coli resistant to the ‘critically important’ modern cephalosporin antibiotics.
This is four times higher than was found during a similar study in 2015, in which just 6% of chicken tested positive for ESBL E. coli.
Modern cephalosporins are widely used for treating life-threatening E.coli blood poisoning in humans.
The study is the first to examine UK-origin retail meat for resistance to a wide range of important antibiotics for treating E. coli infections.
It found very high levels of resistance to two more highly important antibiotics.
51% of the E. coli from pork and poultry samples were resistant to the antibiotic trimethoprim, which is used to treat over half of lower urinary-tract infections.
In addition, 19% of the E. coli were resistant to gentamicin, an important human antibiotic used to treat more serious upper urinary-tract infections.
Mass medication of livestock
The study tested for the presence of E. coli which are resistant to the key antibiotics for treating E. coli urinary-tract and blood-poisoning infections in people.
The highly resistant ESBL E. coli was found on meat from all of the supermarkets.
The findings provide further evidence that the overuse of antibiotics used to medicate livestock on British farms is likely to be undermining the treatment of E. coli urinary-tract and blood-poisoning infections in humans.
Some of the antibiotics tested are used in far greater quantities in livestock farming than in human medicine.
Emma Rose of the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics said the findings show the level of antibiotic resistance on retail meat is "worse than expected."
"Supermarkets must now publicly commit to polices which prohibit the routine mass-medication of groups of healthy animals, and take immediate steps to reduce farm use of the ‘Critically Important’ drugs," Mr Rose said.
'Need for improvements'
Dr Mark Holmes, from Cambridge University, who led the study, said he is concerned that insufficient resources are being put into the surveillance of antibiotic resistance in farm animals and retail meat.
"We don’t know if these levels are rising or falling in the absence of an effective monitoring system," Dr Holmes said.
"These results highlight the need for improvements in antibiotic stewardship in veterinary medicine.
"While some progress has been made we must not be complacent as it may take many years before we see significant reductions in the numbers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in farms," Dr Holmes concluded.
E-coli is by far the most common cause of urinary-tract infections and of blood poisoning. These infections must be treated with antibiotics.
Figures compiled by the Alliance from official data show that the number of E. coli blood-poisoning infections has been increasing for the past 25 years and reached a record 45,666 in 2015.
The increase is partly being driven by increasing resistance to key antibiotics in urinary-tract infections, resulting in more treatment failures and in some cases the development of serious blood-poisoning infections.
No new antibiotics have been discovered for treating E. coli for 35 years.
'Routine dosing of animals'
Increasing scientific evidence from a wide range of studies shows that the routine dosing of animals on intensive farms is an important contributor to the problem.
Dr Ron Daniels BEM, CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust said the study highlights a "worrying trend" towards rising resistance in E.coli on UK retail meat.
"E.coli in people is the greatest cause of deaths from sepsis, and poor antimicrobial stewardship in intensive farming is undoubtedly contributing to this trend," Dr Daniels said.
"It's of paramount importance that we act decisively to reduce this immediate threat to human life."
The Alliance has raised the issue of farm-antibiotic use with all major retailers over the last few years.
The organisation says it has seen positive progress from Waitrose, who in 2015 stated that antibiotics would not be used for routine prophylaxis within its supply chains.
In August 2016, Waitrose updated their policy to also state that they are working towards significant year on year reductions in usage of all antibiotics, and have pledged to end the use of all CIAs as soon as possible.
In response to the testing, the Alliance is calling for similar action from all UK supermarkets to tackle the use of antibiotics in their supply chains, by banning the routine preventative mass-medication of groups of animals, and dramatically curbing farm-use of the ‘critically important’ antibiotics.
'Abusing medicines'
Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association said: "These results show how vital it is to encourage farming systems that keep animals healthy without abusing medicines that are crucial to human health.
"Organic farmers have been doing this successfully for years. Supermarkets must act to protect public health and support farmers to change their farming systems."
Philip Lymbery, Compassion in World Farming’s CEO, said the study reveals "our worst fears".
"Without a drastic change in the over-use of antibiotics on factory farms, we could be facing a post-antibiotic era.
"We must no longer sacrifice animal welfare for the sake of producing cheap meat," Mr Lymbery said.
Responding to findings, Keith Taylor, the Green Party MEP for the South East and the party's Animals spokesperson, said: "The systematic overuse of antibiotics driven by intensive farming is fuelling a public health emergency that campaigners are predicting will cost millions of lives."
"The report reinforces the need for any post-EU government to overhaul the way farm subsidies are paid.
"Any new subsidies should be designed to prioritise a transition away from intensive farming and towards an environmentally and ecologically sustainable agriculture industry," concluded Mr Taylor.
