Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial Resistance in Food Animals

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines AMR as the resistance of bacterial, viral, parasitic, and fungal microorganisms to antimicrobial medicines that were previously effective for treatment of infections. This process is accelerated by the overuse of antimicrobial medicines in the human health, animal, food and agricultural sectors.  

Today 70% of all antibiotics are used in animals. In the dairy sector, they are mostly used for blanket treatments in a vast number of farm animals. With the growing world population and the concomitant need for more protein, this poses a challenging situation, with a growing impact on both animal and human health, as well as the environment.

By 2050, the number of deaths per year from AMR is expected to increase from approx. 700 thousand today to 10 million, with cumulative economic loss expected to reach $100 trillion. To address this global problem, the Food & Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) and the WHO support the “One Health” approach to increase awareness, reduce antibiotic use, and encourage the development of alternative treatments for humans and animals. This multisectoral approach is required because AMR does not recognize geographical or human/animal borders.  Mileutis, with its safe and residue-free products, is proud to be a part of this approach, helping to reduce the use of antibiotics and make the world a safer place.

Mileutis’ leading focus is on the dairy industry segment of the animal healthcare market, where its soon to be launched products will reduce the currently administered antibiotic treatments to dairy cows by up to 90%.

Mileutis’ technology will enable a very significant reduction in the use of antibiotics in dairy cows, and in the future, in other animals and humans.

Sources

OECD (2018), Stemming the Superbug Tide: Just a Few Dollars More. OECD Health Policy Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264307599-en.

World Bank (2017) Drug-Resistant Infections: A Threat to Our Economic Future. Available at: worldbank.org

Van Boeckel, T., et al. (2015) Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(18), 5649-5654. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503141112

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