Live animal transport risks spreading antibiotic-resistant superbugs, warn experts

Exclusive: Scientists say threat can undermine human health, as government under pressure to ban live exports

Transporting live cattle, pigs and chickens risks spreading resistance to antibiotics, experts have warned.

And human diseases can become harder to treat when the drugs are undermined, according to a scientific report.

The UK government is facing pressure to honour a promise in its 2019 election manifesto to ban live exports. The measure was included in the Kept Animals Bill, which has been on hold – and Liz Truss reportedly had planned to ditch it altogether.

But animal-rights campaigners have appealed to Rishi Sunak to revive the planned ban. The government says it will revive the Bill “as soon as parliamentary time allows”.

It’s already known that animals crowded into lorries or on board ships suffer high levels of stress, which makes them more susceptible to disease.

But now experts on the European Food Safety Authority panel on biological hazards say transporting them between farms or to slaughterhouses also threatens the effectiveness of antibiotics by spreading resistant bacteria.

In a report to the European Parliament, the scientists say the main risks include the presence of resistant bacteria in animals before being transported, release of bacteria through faeces, exposure to other animals carrying more or different types of resistant bacteria, insufficient hygiene of vehicles and equipment and the duration of journeys.

Exposure to contaminated assembly centres, control posts and lairage areas is another risk area.

Those factors were considered “99 –100 per cent certain (almost certain)” to contribute to the probability of transmission of antibiotic resistance.

The panel said the implications of its assessment go beyond animal health and welfare because many bacteria can be transmitted from animals to humans.

When those “superbugs” become resistant to antimicrobials, the effective treatment of infectious diseases in humans can be compromised.

Humans can pick up antimicrobial-resistant bacteria from human-to-human transmission, direct contact with animals, via the food chain and from the environment.

Government medical chiefs have repeatedly raised the spectre of common conditions becoming fatal if antibiotics fail to work.

More than 1.2 million people died from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in 2019 as they became a leading cause of death worldwide, according to a study published in The Lancet in January.

“Despite available data showing a reduction in antibiotic consumption in recent years, antimicrobial resistance remains a pressing public health issue that needs to be tackled at global level and across sectors”, said Frank Verdonck, head of the authority’s biological hazards and animal health and welfare unit.

To reduce the risk, the report suggests minimising journey times, and thoroughly cleaning vehicles, equipment and spaces where poultry, pigs and cattle are loaded and unloaded.