Increased awareness of the threat of antimicrobial resistance may have contibuted to the fall in sales.

Responsible use campaigns may have contributed to the decline

Sales of antibiotics for use in animals for use in Europe fell between 2011 and 2014, according to a new report.

The European Medicines Agency’s annual sales of veterinary antibiotics report presents data on the sales of veterinary antimicrobial agents from 29 countries in 2014.

Data submitted to the European Surveillance of Veterinary Antimicrobial Consumption (ESVAC) shows a fall of 2.5 per cent in sales of antibiotics for use in animals. This is despite a considerable increase in a European country which registered more sales due to an improved data collection system.

In 24 of those countries that provided data for the same period, the report shows that sales fell by 12 per cent.

According to Member States, factors that may have contributed to the decline include responsible use campaigns, increased awareness of the threat of antimicrobial resistance, restrictions of use and targets and changes in animal demographics.

‘The reduced sales of veterinary antimicrobials in some countries indicate that there is potential for a decline in other countries, too,’ says the report.

‘A large difference in the sales, expressed as mg/PCU, was observed between the most- and least-selling countries. This is likely to be partly due to differences in the composition of the animal population in the various countries (e.g. more pigs than cattle). Furthermore, differences in the production system may play an important role.’

The data is collected annually as part of the ESVAC project which collects information on how antimicrobial medicines are used in animals across the European Union (EU).

The ESVAC project has grown from reporting data from nine countries for its first report covering 2005-2009, to 28 countries from the European Economic Area and Switzerland for its 2014 report.