Should farmers in low- and middle- income countries be able to give their livestock antibiotics that are important in human medicine?
Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is a threat to global health. If not enough is done to address the problem, 10 million people will die from AMR every year by 2050. So, with stocks of antibiotics quickly becoming ineffective for treating disease in humans, we might wonder where most antibiotics are used and how we can minimise overuse. In many countries, many more antibiotics are used in livestock than in humans. Farmers sometimes use antibiotics to treat an individual animal, prevent a whole group from becoming sick, or to promote growth.
In the UK, there is a lot of support available to farmers for improving animal welfare and husbandry, leading to less need for antibiotic use. Antibiotic use in animals in the UK was halved in the six years from 2014 to 2020. But in many low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), farmers receive a lot less state support, and have much smaller profit margins. They may rely more on antibiotics to keep animals healthy.
It's important that we address ABR by minimising overuse of antibiotics, especially those important for human health. But at the same time, we need to make sure that the ways in which we reduce use (who is prevented from accessing antibiotics, and for what purposes) is fair, not just nationally, but globally. One of the key questions, then, is: ‘should farmers in low- and middle- income countries be able to give their livestock antibiotics that are important in human medicine?’
ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF FARMERS IN LMICS HAVING ACCESS TO ANTIBIOTICS FOR THEIR LIVESTOCK |
ARGUMENTS AGAINST FARMERS IN LMICS HAVING ACCESS TO ANTIBIOTICS FOR THEIR LIVESTOCK |
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Stewardship according to context: justifications for coercive antimicrobial stewardship policies in agriculture and their limitations – Tess Johnson (forthcoming) Bioethics
An ethical analysis of key tensions for interventions to address antimicrobial resistance and how they apply in low- and middle- income countries – Sunil Pokharel, Bipin Adhikari, Tess Johnson, and Phaik Yeong Cheah (2024) BMJ Global Health
A just transition for antimicrobial resistance: planning for an equitable and sustainable future with antimicrobial resistance – Just Transitions for AMR Working Group (2023) The Lancet