Sprzedaż substancji przeciwbakteryjnych stosowanych w medycynie weterynaryjnej w krajach europejskich w 2020 r.

At the end of 2021, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), published the 11th report on sales of antimicrobial agents used in veterinary medicine in 31 European countries in years 2019 and 2020. A total of 5,577.8 tons were sold in 2020 for animal treatment, including 5,507.7 tons used for food production animals, which was 5.6% more as compared to 2019. In Poland, 856.7 tons were sold, making 15.4% of total European antimicrobials consumption. EMA has developed a unit of measurement to monitor antibiotic use and sales across Europe as mg/PCU, where PCU means Population Correction Unit, and takes into account the animal population as well as the estimated weight of each particular animal at the time of treatment with antibiotics. Differences of sales of various antimicrobial classes between the countries (mean is 89.0 mg/PCU) in Europe was observed, from 2.3 mg/PCU in Norway to 393.9 mg/PCU in Cyprus (187.9 mg/PCU in Poland). These values show that between 2020 and 2021 in Europe and in Poland antibiotics use has increased 5.9% and 1.9%, respectively The largest proportions of the sold antimicrobials were accounted for penicillins (31.1%; 27.7 mg/PCU), tetracyclines (26.7%; 23.8 mg/PCU), and sulfonamides (8.8%; 6.4 mg/PCU). For the antimicrobials classes from the list of critically important antibiotics with highest priority in human medicine, namely 3rd and 4th generation of cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, other quinolones, and polymyxins, the sales for food-producing animals accounted for 0,2%, 2.6%, 0.2%, and 2.8%, of the total sales in the 31 countries in 2020, respectively. In Poland, the highest consumption of antimicrobials were noted for penicillins (61.1 mg/PCU), tetracyclines (45.3 mg/ PCU), and macrolides (24.8 mg/PCU). For the period 2011–2020, an overall decline in sales of 43.2% was observed, from 161.4 mg/PCU in 2011 to 91.6 mg/PCU in 2020. During this period, sales decreased by more than 5% in 19 countries, whereas in four others sales increased by more than 5%, including Poland, where a total increase from 126.3 mg/PCU in 2011 to 197.9 mg/PCU in 2020 was noted. This article presents EMA report with critical comments and remarks.