RUMA CA&E shares fourth Annual Progress Report
The latest report provides more details on RUMA CA&E's approach to parasiticides.
The Responsible Use of Medicines Alliance – Companion Animal & Equine (RUMA CA&E) has published its fourth Annual Progress Report, following its campaign in November.
The report comes as RUMA CA&E announces a new focus on Sustainable Parasite Control, which will accompany its continued goals of Antimicrobial Stewardship.
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) has shared data, based on findings from the UK-Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance Sales Surveillance (2024) Report. RUMA CA&E says these statistics show encouraging trends for its work.
The data highlights a continuing annual decline in antibiotic use in dogs, with a 12 per cent reduction between 2023 and 2024. This combines to an over 70 per cent reduction since 2014.
HP-CIA use in dogs is also at its lowest since 2014. There has been an overall reduction of 59 per cent since 2014, with a six per cent reduction year-on-year.
Despite an 11 per cent rise in feline antibiotic use from 2022 to 2023, this dropped by seven per cent between 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile HP-CIA use has decreased by six per cent year-on-year, with an overall reduction of 46 per cent since 2014.
It also reveals that, over ten years, there has been a 48 per cent reduction in sales of topical antibiotics for dogs and a 49 per cent reduction in sales for cats.
The report provides updates to two of RUMA CA&E’s major initiatives: the launch of the first ever National AMU Reduction Targets for companion animals, and a new approach to parasiticides.
As part of its parasiticides approach, RUMA CA&E created a short-term sub-group to analyse its role in ‘medicines stewardship beyond antimicrobials’. This included a risk and impact exercise, analysing the use of anthelmintic, endoparasiticide and ectoparasiticides products from a One Health perspective.
Steve Howard, RUMA CA&E secretary general, said: “More evidence gathering will be important moving forwards to understand some of the wider impacts on resistance and on the environment of these and other classes of medicines in order to develop accurate guidance for the profession but in the absence of that evidence, driving more responsible use, accurate application and safe disposal by pet owners, would most certainly have a positive impact in the meantime from a One Health perspective.”
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