Germany's Use of Antibiotics in Animals Plummets by 69%! Resistance Crisis May Ease?

On October 7, 2024, the German Federal Food Safety Authority for Consumer Protection (BVL) published a detailed report on the use of antibiotics in animals in 2023. According to the report, we can see a decrease in the use (or supply) of antibiotics for animals compared to the previous year. Specifically, the total antibiotic use recorded by the BVL in 2023 reached 629 tonnes, a decrease of 11 tonnes, or 2.1%, compared to the previous year. Even more remarkable, the use of antibiotics in 2023 has decreased by a staggering 69 percent compared to 2011, when the survey first began.

In the specific use of various antibiotics, the use of penicillin is 206 tons, tetracycline is 104 tons, sulfonamides are 57 tons, macrolides are 51 tons, aminoglycosides are 36 tons, and polypeptide drugs are 33 tons. The BVL report also noted that the use of cephalosporins and polypeptide antibiotics has declined, but at the same time, the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics has shown an upward trend.

The emergence of this trend may be related to the increasing attention paid to the problem of antibiotic resistance worldwide in recent years. Governments and relevant agencies have taken measures to strictly control the use of antibiotics in order to slow the development of resistance. Germany's efforts in this regard have clearly achieved remarkable results, and the use of antibiotics in animals has been significantly reduced, which is of great importance for public health safety and animal health.