A joint report prepared by the European Food Safety Authority, the European Medicine Agency and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reviewed antibiotic use over the period 2016 through 2018.  Regulations introduced to restrict antibiotic use to strict veterinary supervision have evidently reduced drug usage.  The report determined that the use of antibiotics in all food producing animals averaged 108.3 mg/kg-1.  The corresponding figure for antibiotic use in humans was 130 mg/kg-1.  The report confirmed that the use of antibiotics in humans is now at a higher level than in livestock.

The report noted the sharp production in administration of the polymyxin class of antibiotics including colistin used as a “last resort” antibiotic to treat multi-drug resistant infections.  In reviewing the relative use of antibiotics in humans and animals it was note that physicians are prescribing third and fourth generation cephalosporins and quinolones and aminopenicillins at a level higher than in food animals.  In contrast polymyxins and tetracyclines are still used more frequently in food animals than humans. 

The report noted relationships between patterns of drug resistance in E. coli especially with regard to carbapenems and cephalosporins.  The report also implicated drug use in livestock with the emergence of resistance strains of Campylobacter.

Some nations in the E.U. are considering introduction of statutory label information regarding antibiotic administration in livestock and poultry.