The British Poultry Council has welcomed the results of the retailer survey on AMR in chicken which demonstrates the significant progress made by the British poultry meat sector in delivering responsible use of antibiotics and safeguarding their efficacy.
According to the recent survey, campylobacter resistance to the Fluoroquinolone Ciprofloxacin has decreased in the last four years, with a 15.33 % reduction of resistant Campylobacter jejuni, and 1.45% reduction of resistant Campylobacter coli.
The results also show a notable reduction in the presence of campylobacter in chicken, with only 0.8% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of campylobacter (>1000 cfu/g), as compared to 3.8% in March 2018.
British Poultry Council’s Chief Executive, Richard Griffiths, said: “We’re delighted to see British poultry meat sector’s drive for excellence in bird health and welfare deliver responsible use of antibiotics and safeguarding their efficacy. Poultry is half of the meat eaten in the UK and we use less than 9.7% of the total antibiotics licensed for food producing animals. We have successfully reduced our antibiotic use by 82% in the last six years and have stopped all preventative treatments as well as the use of colistin. The highest priority antibiotics that are critically important for humans are used only as a ‘last resort’.
We welcome the findings of the retailer survey on AMR in chicken and development of the science and understanding in what is a very complex subject. We’re committed to growing our knowledge of resistance in the food chain and we look forward to working with the FSA to build on this study.
Through our Antibiotic Stewardship, we’re trying to better understand the link between antibiotic use and resistance in production chain. We’ll carry on upholding UK’s position at the forefront of international efforts to keep antibiotics effective for future generations and tackling antimicrobial resistance.”