Antibiotic use in food animals varies globally

As U.S. stakeholders work to enhance antibiotic stewardship in animal agriculture, a report from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) offers useful insights into global antibiotic use patterns and how they vary around the world. Among the key findings, the report shows that the most-used types of antibiotics differ significantly by region. For example, tetracyclines and macrolides accounted for more than 60 percent of reported antibiotic use in the Americas but only 22 percent in Asia. Although the data do not supply sufficient details for stakeholders to fully understand what is driving differences in antibiotic use patterns, the report outlines a contributing factor: variation in the distribution of food animal species around the world. Read more…