Antibiotic use in Belgian livestock still not under control

The use of antibiotics in livestock in Belgium last year increased by 1.1%, reports De Standaard. That's bad news, according to several experts who fear that the target for 2020 - halving the use of antibiotics in livestock – will not be met.

Antibiotic sales for livestock in 2014 increased by more than 1%, after a downward trend in previous years. Professor Jeroen Dewulf of Ghent University calls the increase "very disappointing". Dewulf is chairman of the Knowledge Center on Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance in Animals in Belgium (AMCRA), which aims to get antibiotic use in livestock under control by way of cooperation between all stakeholders, from both the agriculture and the pharmaceutical industries.

“More compelling, legislative measures are required," says Dewulf. His colleague at the University of Antwerp, Professor Herman Goossens, is also in favour of more stringent measures imposed by the government. This includes putting a stop to the discounts sometimes offered by pharmaceutical companies.

Federal agriculture minister Willy Borsus yesterday announced that a new database, operational from 2016, should help to identify the heavy antibiotics users in the sector.