Antibiotics use in livestock could rise by a third in next 15 years, UN report warns

Key points

• The use of antibiotics on livestock will rise by nearly a third in the next 15 years without government intervention, according to new global estimates, with potentially disastrous impacts on human resistance to essential medicines.
• Animal husbandry accounts for close to three-quarters of global use of antimicrobial medications and in many countries their use is poorly monitored.
• Some herds are routinely dosed and in many countries antimicrobials are used to increase the growth of animals bred for meat.
• This is one of the leading causes of the rise of superbugs, which are threatening to render antibiotics useless against increasingly resistant diseases.
• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) already costs an estimated €11bn (£9.5bn) a year within Europe alone and is predicted to cost $1tn globally by 2050. AMR is forecast to kill tens of millions of people unless there is concerted action, and to make what are currently routine surgeries such as hip...