Antibiotic dispensing reduced again
The total amount of antibiotics distributed to veterinarians is 61 tons compared to the previous year declined. The amount of antibiotics dispensed in veterinary medicine in Germany fell again in 2022, similar to previous years. This is reported by the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in its annual evaluation. The delivery volume fell by 61 tons to 540 tons (minus 10,1 percent) compared to the previous year. If you look at the period since the start of recording, in 2011, the amount of antibiotics dispensed has fallen by around 68 percent.
It is particularly pleasing that the quantities of fluoroquinolones, 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins and colistin, which are critical for human therapy, have fallen again. In numbers:
- The volume of fluoroquinolones sold fell by around 0,6 tons to 5,0 tons compared to the previous year, which corresponds to a reduction of 10,1 percent;
- that of the 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins to 1,1 tons (minus 0,1 tons minus 10,8 percent).
- For polypeptide antibiotics (this is mainly colistin), the sales volume has also fallen (total volume in 2022 around 44 tons, minus 6,8 tons minus 13,3 percent compared to the previous year).
The State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), Silvia Bender, explains: "First of all, the decline in antibiotics sold in veterinary medicine is good news! The trend towards a decrease in the quantities of antibiotics sold in animal husbandry is stable. The total quantity sold last year has reduced to a third of the amount at that time compared to the start of recording in 2011. This is a remarkable success of our national reduction measures. However, another possible influencing factor for the decrease in the amount of antibiotics supplied is the simultaneous decrease in the number of animals in the agricultural animal husbandry, especially pigs, must be taken into account. The actual reduction in the number of animals may therefore be smaller than the total sales volume suggests. It is therefore necessary to continue to make concerted efforts to actually permanently reduce the use of antibiotics. I am confident that we will also be able to do this with the help of the law to amend the Veterinary Medicines Act, which was presented by Federal Minister Cem Özdemir and came into force on January 1, 2023. In doing so, we have set the signal for veterinary medicine and animal owners to reduce the use of critical antibiotics to the unavoidable minimum."
As in previous years, penicillins and tetracyclines make up the majority of the antibiotics sold. In these classes of active substances, there was a reduction of around 7 tonnes (penicillins) and around 35 tonnes (tetracyclines) compared to the previous year. In the case of sulfonamides, the decrease compared to the previous year is 9 tons.
The development and spread of antibiotic resistance is a global threat in both human and veterinary medicine. In order to counteract the spread of antibiotic resistance ("silent pandemic"), national and European regulations are urgently needed in view of the cross-border problem. That is why we continue to work at level to ensure that the regulations that are still outstanding in European veterinary medicinal products legislation, which provide for further Europe-wide restrictions on the use of antibiotics in animals, are introduced as quickly as possible.
Further information
Since 2011, pharmaceutical companies and wholesalers have been legally obliged to report to the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) the quantities of antibiotics that are sold to veterinarians in Germany every year. The total quantity dispensed cannot be assigned to individual animal species, since the majority of the veterinary medicinal products in question are authorized for several animal species. To what extent the reduction in the delivery quantity in 2022 is also based on the renewed decline in agricultural animal husbandry, especially pigs, cannot be estimated with certainty. The number of pig farms fell by 10,1 percent last year and fell by 1.910 to 16.940 farms with pig farms.
