The World Animal
Protection director for Africa, Tennyson Williams (pictured), has expressed concern over the poor level of regulations on antibiotics in animal production and veterinary use during an conference held in Nairobi on Friday.
He said about 40-80 per cent of antibiotics used in farm animals are completely unnecessary thus raising major concern.
“We would like to further urge governments, animal production industry players and different stakeholders in society, especially farmers and veterinarians to ensure the health and welfare of their animals,”said Williams.
Inappropriate use of antibiotics has been identified as a major cause of the rise of antibiotic resistance in Kenyan.
Antibiotic resistance has been declared a major global public health problem by medical professionals and has a potential to endanger both human and animal health on a global scale,said Williams.
The high use of antibiotics and lack of adherence to the recommended withdrawal periods often leads to high levels of residues in meat and other animal products .
This has further led to greater international consumer scrutiny towards the misuse of antibiotics .
“Major fast food restaurants have been banning products with antibiotic residues within their outlets and the issue must be tackled immediately ,”he said.
Other key speakers in the forum which,
included experts from the Ministry of Health and Agriculture, cautioned the public on purchasing antibiotics without prescription. They said patients were suffering due to antibiotic resistance and even some TB patients were undergoing longer periods of treatment due to poor response to available antibiotics .
The Health ministry said it was looking into the matter and will enforce stringent measures in the future to prevent abuse of antibiotics.
WAP reiterated its commitment toward the support of responsible use of antibiotics in both farm animals and humans.
“We support the production of policies a aimed at reducing the use of antibiotics on animals by promoting higher welfare systems in the livestock industry,” Williams said.