To fight against antibiotic resistance, ANSES calls for more than moderate use of antibiotics in farms, and in particular for the cessation of this preventive practice.
Antibiotic resistance is a “serious threat” to health and it is “a reality in every region of the world”. This observation was made on April 30 by the Health Organization itself. Clearly, if we continue to use antibiotics massively and indiscriminately, the effectiveness of these drugs is called into question and this can worsen the prognosis of certain infectious diseases, with significant consequences on human health. Reports that sound the alarm bells abound. The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) has therefore decided to take action to assess the risks of emergence of antibiotic resistance linked to the modes of use of antibiotics in the veterinary world.
And the threat is such that ANSES, in a report published on June 20, recommends “to abandon the use of antibiotics for prevention in farms, to reserve the use of latest generation antibiotics (cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones of 3th and 4th generations), to specific situations to be clearly identified in advance by sector, and to strictly supervise and favor the use of narrow-spectrum antibiotics, by specifically targeting the targeted bacteria. “It is therefore a strong incentive for moderation that launches ANSES.
Develop alternatives to antibiotics
But these measures alone will not be enough to fight against antibiotic resistance. The health security agency therefore pleads for the provision of tools to better target antibiotic treatments and for the development of alternatives to the use of these molecules. The fight against the development of resistance to antibiotics will therefore, as we know today, involve a more reasoned use of these drugs on farms. A recent survey by the UFC-Que Choisir association has once again shown the extent of the problem: the analysis of 100 samples of poultry (chicken or turkey) purchased in supermarkets, in butchers or on the markets has highlighted q more than 3 out of 5 pieces carried bacteria resistant to one or more families of antibiotics. Even more concerning, nearly one in 4 poultry was resistant to a critical antibiotic, such as cephalosporins from 3e and 4e generation or fluoroquinolones, 2 families of antibiotics widely used in human medicine and particularly generating bacterial resistance.
Objective: -25% by 2017
The level of exposure to antibiotics in the animal population has already fallen by 15% in France over the past five years. But the efforts must be continued Last January, the deputies adopted, for example, a measure prohibiting discounts or rebates as well as the delivery of free units during the sale of antibiotic drugs to breeders. The 2012-2017 EcoAntibio plan sets a reduction target of 25% over five years.
.
