BioVoice News November 2017 Issue 6 Volume 2 | Page 15

studies by CDDEP researchers have projected that antimicrobial consumption in food animal production will rise globally by 67 percent by 2030, including more than a tripling of use in India. A scientific study published during 2016 in PLOS Medicine Journal estimated that AMR could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050. Antimicrobial resistance threat is real and no longer limited to the over the counter availability factor. The non-therapeutic use of antibiotics, including in livestock and fisheries industries has a huge passive effect on the human health. Just that it has been largely unnoticed doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen or have any effect on sick. A new study published in the journal 'Science' by researchers at the CDDEP in New Delhi and partners have predicted 82 percent A scientific study published during 2016 in PLOS Medicine Journal estimated that AMR could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050. Antimicrobial resistance threat is real and no longer limited to the over the counter availability factor. increase in antibiotic consumption in India by 2030. While India reported using 2,633 tons of antibiotics in food animals in 2013, the researchers predict that this is likely to soar by 82 percent by 2030. country has a huge unregulated livestock sector that freely uses these drugs which are easily accessible. Two- thirds of poultry farms in Punjab, for example, still use antibiotics for growth promotion. Such farms also reported high levels of multidrug resistant bacteria which can easily escape into the environment. We are losing medically important antibiotics at a very fast pace.” “India is the fourth largest consumer of antibiotics in animal food production globally and is on an increasingly dangerous path. We must remove antibiotics from the human food chain, except to treat sick animals, or A LOOK AT THe AmR face the increasingly real pOLicY decisiOns prospect of a post- antibiotic world,” CDDEP in indiA The Indian Council of Director Ramanan Laxminarayan warns, “The Medical Research (ICMR) www.BioVoiceNews.com 15