While the livestock sector is on the right track, there is potential to further reduce the use and dependency of antibiotics. Disinfection is one of the most effective and easy interventions to achieve this. The use of antibiotics has decreased and is now lower in food-producing animals than in humans, according to the 2021 report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). This is good news and shows that the measures taken by the European Union (EU) such as the 2001 ban on preventive use of antibiotics in farm animals, as well as the result of all efforts made in better animal nutrition, vaccination, and better farm management are proving to be effective. Since the EU ban in 2001, other regions in the world, including the United States and Asia, have been working on the curb of antibiotics in livestock production as well. The measures are focused on responsible use of antibiotics, meaning that antibiotics can still be used for treatment of diseases, as animals have the right for good treatment when they are ill, rather than using antibiotics to prevent diseases or cover up bad welfare or poor farm management practices.

The continuing threat of disease outbreaks and the priority of AMR urges the livestock sector to take action to mitigate, prevent and control antibiotics even more than we already do. And this is possible because there is room to further decrease antibiotic use. This is encouraged with the new EU Animal Health Law, that came into effect in April 2021, and states that only sick, individual animals (and not whole herds) may be administered antibiotics. The new EU legislation also strongly embraces the One Health approach as a way to rethink the livestock production system, as well as better early detection and control of animal diseases. In practice this means that we need to focus on a more sustainable and healthy way of producing animals.