Overall use of drugs has fallen but treatments of a ‘critically important’ class rose from 2015 to 2019
UK pig farms’ increasing use of critically important antibiotics for human health has prompted concerns about farming practices and efforts to reduce reliance on the drugs.
Previously unpublished industry data seen by the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Vet Record shows the use of a class of antibiotics prescribed for various infections in humans more than doubled on UK pig farms between 2015 and 2019.