Nearly 200 United Nations member states, warned of the rising health threat of drug-resistant pathogens, approved a declaration on Thursday to step up their work to preserve the efficacy of disease-fighting medicines, reduce the death toll from antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by 10 percent, and “meaningfully reduce” antimicrobial use in agriculture by 2030.
“AMR could unwind 100 years of progress in medicine, making infections that are easily treatable today a death sentence,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization.
Agriculture accounts for an estimated two-thirds of antibiotic use worldwide, much of it on farm animals but also on plants. Two recent estimates put agricultural use at 76,000 metric tons a year, or 167.6 million pounds. The declaration calls on nations to “strive to meaningfully reduce the quantity of antimicrobials used globally from the current level,” including the prevention or reduction of antimicrobial use in plant agriculture.
The declaration also acknowledges the need to end the use of medically important antibiotics to encourage weight gain in meat-bearing animals, a step already taken in the United States.
Antimicrobial resistance is linked to 5 million human deaths annually, with projections that the number will rise to 10 million a year by 2050, based on current trends of growing resistance to treatment among bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. AMR is “the silent, slow-moving pandemic,” said Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados.
The declaration, adopted during a high-level meeting at UN headquarters, set goals for action on human health, agriculture, the environment, and research. It included the goal of raising $100 million to implement national AMR plans. Ambassador Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago, president of the UN General Assembly, declared approval of the declaration by voice vote and said it would be submitted later to the assembly.
The overuse and misuse of antimicrobials gives pathogens more opportunities to develop a tolerance for the medications. The agricultural use of antimicrobials has grown with the increased number of farm animals in the world and the food needs of the growing global population.
As alternatives to antimicrobials, livestock producers could use vaccines to prevent disease, consult veterinarians to confirm the diagnosis of ailments, and follow management practices that protect animal health using biosecurity and nutrition, said officials at a news conference.
By one estimate, AMR could reduce livestock production by 11 percent in low-income nations by 2050. The EcoAMR series of reports, released on Thursday, said AMR, if unchecked, could cause $575 million in losses in livestock production worldwide by 2050. “Considering even moderate harmful spillover effects of AMR in livestock on human health, cumulative global GDP losses between 2025 and 2050 associated with lower labour productivity are estimated at US$ 1.1 trillion,” said the report on agricultural impacts.
If antimicrobial use was reduced by 30 percent worldwide, global economic growth would increase by $125 billion through 2050, projected the report. “Interventions targeting AMU [antimicrobial use] and AMR can mitigate resistance rates and offer economic benefits that potentially outweigh the costs of implementing these interventions.”
Antimicrobial use rates in livestock are 45 percent higher in countries that allow them to be used to promote growth, said Emmanuelle Soubeyran, director general of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health.
To read the declaration on antimicrobial resistance, click here.