WHO Warns Against the Use of Antibiotics in Food-Producing Animals

1. WHO strongly recommends an overall reduction in the use of all classes of medically important antibiotics in food-producing animals, including complete restriction of these antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention without diagnosis.

2. Healthy animals should only receive antibiotics to prevent disease if it has been diagnosed in other animals in the same flock, herd, or fish population.

3. Where possible, sick animals should be tested to determine the most effective and prudent antibiotic to treat their specific infection.

4. Antibiotics used in animals should be selected from those WHO has listed as being “least important” to human health, and not from those classified as “highest priority critically important”. 

5. Depend more on alternative options to using antibiotics for disease prevention in animals such as improving hygiene, better use of vaccination, and changes in animal housing and husbandry practices. 

The new WHO recommendations aim to help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics that are important for human medicine by reducing their unnecessary use and misuse in animals.