UK pig sector antibiotic usage fell by 10% in 2025 to 77.2 mg/PCU, the second lowest level on record.
The welcome reduction follows two consecutive yearly increases, to 85mg/PCU in 2023 and 86mg/PCU in 2024, but remains above the low of 72mg/PCU in 2022.
A decade after the launch of the electronic Medicines Book (eMB), the latest figures show total antibiotic usage currently stands at just over a quarter of the original figure, 278mg/PCU, recorded in 2015, when reporting through eMB began, highlighting the long-term improvements that has taken place across the sector.
Usage of highest priority critically important antibiotics (HP-CIA), those also important in human medicine, remains at a very low level, despite a slight increase from 0.009 mg/PCU to 0.012 mg/PCU in 2025. For context, the figure in 2015 was close to 1mg/PCU, with most of that in the form of colistin, use of which has not been recorded in recent years.
Mandy Nevel, head of animal health and welfare at AHDB, described the scale of the reduction since 2015 as a ‘significant achievement’.
“Ten years of data from the eMB show what this industry can achieve when it works together. Antibiotic use has fallen by more than 70% since 2015, which is a significant achievement.
“This hasn’t been about removing treatment where it is needed. It has been about improving herd health and management so that the need for antibiotics is reduced in the first place.
“The latest results show that responsible antibiotic use and high standards of pig health and welfare go hand-in-hand and maintaining that balance will remain a priority.”
Now capturing data from more than 94% of UK pig production, eMB has provided a ‘consistent, shared picture of antibiotic use across the sector’, she added.
The withdrawal of zinc oxide in 2022, widely used to manage post-weaning diarrhoea, raised concerns that antibiotic use could rise again. While there was a small short-term increase, usage has since fallen again, demonstrating the strength of the systems now in place.
“Looking ahead, the challenge will be about sustaining good animal health along with responsible antibiotic use as the norm,” Dr Nevel added.