Despite dangers, antibiotic use on farms may rise if left unchecked

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-02-02 06:00

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Scientists have long been warning about the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs on farms, but despite this, international researchers say antibiotic use in animals could increase globally by 8% by 2030 if stronger restrictions are not applied worldwide. The team collected data on antimicrobial use from 42 countries, and say in 2020, we used 99,502 tonnes of the stuff, and it's likely to increase to 107,472 tonnes by 2030, to match our growing agricultural needs.

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conference: PLOS Global Public Health

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Organisation/s: ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Funder: RM was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 grant for MOOD (Monitoring Outbreaks for Disease surveillance in a data science context) (No 874850). MG was supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique. TPVB and YW were supported by The Swiss National Science Foundation Eccellenza Fellowship (No 181248), and the Branco Weiss Foundation. The funders played no role in the design or interpretation of the study.

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