Transparency on antibiotic use required

With the World Health Organisation identifying antimicrobial resistance as one of the globe’s greatest threats, it is fair to question why Australia is not staying in step with the international community when it comes to transparency around antibiotic use on Australian farms.

Antimicrobials – medications such as antibiotics and antivirals – have long been used to prevent and treat infectious diseases in animals and humans. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when germs develop resistance to the medications used to kill them.

The instances of AMR is growing and, the WHO warns, threatens human and animal health and welfare, as well as food security and safety.

Australian cattle in Queensland.Credit: Tamara Voninski

These so-called “superbugs” have intensive health impacts, causing infections that are difficult to treat, putting strain on health systems to provide expensive and intensive care, and killing more than 1.2 million people annually with that number projected to climb.

They also harm agricultural productivity, adding further pressure on global food security which has already been negatively impacted in the last few years by conflict, climate change and COVID-19. Food insecurity levels reached an all-time high in 2022 with more than 258 million people facing crisis conditions in 58 countries and territories, according to The World Bank.

The United Nations Environment program says, if unchecked, AMR could shave $US3.4 trillion off world GDP annually and push 24 million more people into extreme poverty in the next decade.

As Carrie Fellner reports today, one of the main drivers of antimicrobial resistance is the overuse of antibiotics.

But the rate of farm antibiotic use in Australia is unclear as country has not published any data since 2010. It is estimated that about 60 per cent of antibiotic sales are for use in animals.

The Department of Agriculture says Australia shares its antimicrobial sales data with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

But its failure to share data publicly is notable in contrast to 27 countries that do make their data publicly available online, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Italy and New Zealand, and the European Union. Many of these countries are competing for the same export markets.

Save Our Antibiotics, a global alliance working to stop the overuse of antibiotics in farming, says in Europe and the UK, the data’s release has motivated farmers to reduce their usage in line with industry averages. British farmers, for example, have curbed their use of antibiotics in food-producing animals by 59 per cent since 2014, while usage in Europe fell by about 53 per cent between 2011 and 2022.

Australian meat products have traditionally had a reputation with both domestic and international customers for a high standard of safety and quality.

The value of the meat industry to our economy should not be underestimated. Australian beef is exported to more than 100 countries – a trade worth about $10.4 billion in 2022. The gross value of the poultry produced in the financial year 2022 was about $3.18 billion and the total contribution of the pork industry to the Australian economy in 2022-23 was estimated to be $6 billion.

These figures underscore the importance of our industry staying in step with international trends around the transparency of data.

The Department of Agriculture says Australia’s antibiotic usage remains low by global standards and has been decreasing since 2015 and that any concern about risk to Australia’s trade relationships was unfounded.

Given that, there seems to be no reason to withhold this information to ensure that local consumers can remain confident about the quality of the meat we are buying, and to protect our international reputation to maintain the valuable economic contributions made by the meat industry.

The Sun-Herald supports the view that the government should make antimicrobial data publicly accessible and welcomes the research commissioned by the federal government to investigate levels of AMR in chicken, pork and beef sourced from supermarkets across Australia.

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