Sales of antibiotics for use in animals in Europe fell by a third in the space of six years, according to latest figures.
A new report, by the European Surveillance Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC), looks at data between 2011 and 2017.
It shows that overall sales of antibiotics for food producing animals fell from 162.0 mg/PCU in 2011 to 109.3 mg/PCU in 2017 across 25 EU member states.
There were also significant reductions in some of the High Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (known as HP-CIAs).
The data showed that the UK now has the fifth lowest mg/PCU of the 31 European countries, reporting sales of 32.5 mg/PCU in 2017.
This reflects the commitment made by those engaged in the targets set by each sector in 2017 to take a responsible approach to antibiotic use as part of the RUMA Targets Task Force.
Sales for antibiotics have also decreased in many European countries, which demonstrates the efforts being made across the continent.
However, no other country has taken the sort of voluntary and collaborative approach to the responsible use of antibiotics that the UK has.
The ESVAC report publishes sales data for food producing animals collectively, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is exploring the potential to report on usage data and sales data by sector.
The EMA started collecting data from nine countries in 2005, which rose to 25 countries by 2011.
Today 31 countries contribute their data for the annual report.
