Drug resistance of Antibiotics

Drug resistance refers to the loss of effectiveness of a medication, such as an antimicrobial or antineoplastic (chemotherapy cancer drug) in treating a condition or disease.

Antimicrobials include:
Antibiotics - to fight bacterial infections
Antifungals - to fight fungal infections.
Antivirals - to fight viral infections.
Antiparasitics - to fight infections by parasites.

The more we use antimicrobials on our livestock the more resistant pathogens there are. This poses a risk for human health because there are more human infections with superbugs for which there might eventually be no effective medication, researchers from the National Food Institute in Denmark reported today in Student BMJ (British Medical Journal).

Jogen Schlundt and team stress that profitable livestock farming is possible with considerably lower routine use of antimicrobials. They call for stricter regulations and closer monitoring of antimicrobial use in farm animals.

Experts and organizations around the globe would like to see a number of measures taken to protect primarily human health, and also animal health, including restricting antimicrobial use in livestock of medications which are critically important for humans.

The European Union has started monitoring drug resistance in livestock - often termed food animals. All EU member states now have to monitor antimicrobial usage.