The work of the RUMA Targets Task Force (TTF) & its contribution to combat AMR in the farmed livestock sector has been Highly Commended at the prestigious Antibiotic Guardian Awards (2 May 2023), held in London.

The story of the RUMA TTF began in 2016, when in response to the Lord O’Neil report, RUMA showed industry leadership by establishing the RUMA TTF. It set about ensuring that the AMR issue and the responsible use of antibiotics was on the agenda for each of the livestock producing sectors. It worked with sector representatives, both vets and farmers, to create and roll out sector specific antibiotic use targets.

RUMA has helped engage the various industry stakeholders and ensure a positive commitment to ensuring that where antibiotics are used, it is done responsibly and with consideration to the principle of as little as possible but as much as necessary.

The response across agriculture has been entirely voluntary. The RUMA targets have helped focus stakeholder support and activity across the UK livestock sectors to achieve a 55% reduction in antibiotic between 2014 and 2020. The use of Highest Priority Critically Important Antibiotics (HP-CIA) in UK food producing animals has also fallen by 83% since 2014, and sales of colistin are virtually nil.

Commenting on the recognition given to the RUMA TTF at the Antibiotic Guardian Awards, RUMA Chair, Cat McLaughlin, says: “I am delighted that the work of UK agriculture has been recognised at the Antibiotic Guardian Awards. RUMA’s role is to bring together organisations from right across the livestock supply chain to promote a coordinated and integrated approach to best practice in the responsible use of medicines.

“The goal of the RUMA TTF has been to respond directly to the AMR challenge and to identify realistic, evidence-based goals for the UK agriculture industry. What has been achieved to date has been incredible and has been done so completely voluntarily without regulation – testament to the commitment right across the British livestock industry in delivering the highest standards of food safety, animal health and animal welfare.”