In November, we called on independent practices to take part in this year’s Antibiotic Amnesty. This is the third time that RUMA CA&E has run this campaign, which raises awareness of the dangers of antimicrobial resistance.
RUMA CA&E has now released its Annual Progress Report for 2024, which reveals some useful data on antibiotic usage between 2022 and 2023.
With the exception of 2020-2021, antibiotic use in dogs has continually decreased since 2016. Measured using the mg/kg metric, RUMA CA&E has revealed that there was a 15 per cent reduction in antibiotic use in dogs between 2022 and 2023.
Antibiotic use in cats, however, has been steadily increasing since 2015. Despite a decrease between 2021 and 2022, there has since been an increase of 11 per cent from 2022- 2023.
The DDDVet data corroborates these trends, recording a decrease of usage of antibiotics in dogs of 0.39 DDDVet/animal and an increase of 0.06 DDDVet/animal for cats.
The report also provides details on the usage of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HP-CIAs). HP-CIAs are considered particularly valuable antibiotics for conditions which are more challenging to manage.
Between 2022 and 2023, HP-CIA use in dogs reduced by 14 per cent. This brings the nine year overall reduction to 57 per cent – its lowest level since 2014. HP-CIA use in cats reduced by 16 per cent, with a nine-year overall reduction of 42 per cent.
Steve Howard, RUMA CA&E secretary general, said: “I am pleased to see that data from the latest UK-Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance (VARSS) Report (2023) which was released on 19 November 2024, is showing reductions in antibiotic use in dogs and HP-CIA use in cats between 2022 and 2023, which is testament to the extensive industry activities underway and overall commitment to antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) from the profession.”
Thank you to all the FIVP members that took part in Antibiotic Amnesty this year. We believe that every conversation had and every antibiotic collected makes a difference and we look forward to next year’s data.
The full report can be read here.
