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A total of 19 European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) countries submitted to the European Medicines Agency their 2010 data on sales, at package level, of antimicrobial veterinary medicinal products (VMPs), according to a standardised protocol and using a common template.
Overall in the 19 countries, approximately 90% of the sales of veterinary antimicrobial agents, in tonnes of active ingredient, were for products almost solely used for herd treatment, i.e. premixes (49%), oral powders (34%) and oral solutions (8%), and 9% were sold as injectable preparations. However, the amount accounted for by the pharmaceutical forms applied for herd treatment varied considerably between the countries. The proportion of the sales, in tonnes of active ingredient, of antimicrobial veterinary medicinal products (VMPs) for local use (intramammaries and intrauterine preparations) was 1.2%. An apparent 30-fold difference in the sales, expressed as mg active ingredient sold per population correction unit (PCU), is observed between the most- and least-selling countries. This is in part likely to be due to differences in the composition of the animal population (e.g. more pigs than cattle; a high proportion of veal calves within the cattle population) in the various countries.
Table 1. Estimated PCU (in 1,000 tonnes) of the population of food-producing species (including horses), by country, for 2010
| Country | Cattle | Pigs | Poultry | Sheep/Goats | Fish | Rabbits | Horses | Total |
| Austria | 444 | 403 | 79 | 34 | na | na | 33 | 994 |
| Belgium | 479 | 901 | 174 | 16 | 1 | 4 | 86 | 1.660 |
| Czech Republic | 292 | 240 | 146 | 15 | 20 | 12 | 30 | 755 |
| Denmark | 409 | 1.856 | 120 | 14 | 34 | na | 70 | 2.503 |
| Estonia | 61 | 35 | 10 | 5 | 1 | na | 4 | 115 |
| Finland | 224 | 181 | 60 | 10 | 12 | na | 30 | 517 |
| France | 3.340 | 1.887 | 1.151 | 696 | 234 | 49 | 181 | 7.538 |
| Hungary | 151 | 316 | 170 | 102 | na | 1 | 27 | 768 |
| Iceland | 19 | 6 | 5 | 47 | 5 | na | 31 | 113 |
| Ireland | 1.091 | 250 | 80 | 275 | 47 | na | 36 | 1.778 |
| Latvia | 104 | 33 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 0,02 | 5 | 165 |
| Lithuania | 224 | 67 | 40 | 4 | 3 | 0,04 | 3 | 342 |
| Netherlands | 983 | 1.493 | 391 | 109 | 7 | 3 | 169 | 3.155 |
| Norway1 | 222 | 125 | 62 | 94 | na | na | 15 | 517 |
| Portugal | 238 | 349 | 205 | 190 | 8 | 8 | 22 | 1.020 |
| Slovenia | 100 | 26 | 34 | 11 | 1 | 0,04 | 9 | 181 |
| Spain | 926 | 3.333 | 703 | 1.651 | 269 | 89 | 277 | 7.247 |
| Sweden1 | 320 | 230 | 82 | 47 | na | na | 145 | 824 |
| United Kingdom | 1.750 | 705 | 1.009 | 1.881 | 196 | na | 520 | 6.061 |
| Total 19 countries | 11.377 | 12.437 | 4.537 | 5.208 | 839 | 165 | 1.692 | 36.256 |
1 Farmed fish not included as sales of antimicrobial VMPs not included in the sales data; na = not applicable.
Of the total sales in the 19 countries, the major proportion, expressed as mg/PCU, was accounted for by tetracyclines (39%), penicillins (23%) and sulfonamides (11%). Overall in the 19 countries, the sales of the antimicrobial classes defined as the most critically important (CIA) in human medicine by the World Health Organization — namely 3rd- and 4th-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and macrolides — accounted for 0.2%, 2.2% and 5.7%, respectively, of the total sales (mg/PCU) of antimicrobial VMPs.
Overall for the 19 countries, 61% of tetracyclines were sold as premixes, 32% as oral powders, 4% as oral solutions and 2% as injections, while 0.3% were for intramammary or intrauterine use. For penicillins,
oral powders accounted for 51%, premixes for 22%, injections for 21%, oral solutions for 3% and intramammary preparations for 3% of the total sales in the 19 countries. For sulfonamides, premixes accounted for 44%, oral powders for 39%, oral solutions for 12%, injections for 4% and oral pastes for 1% of the total sales in the 19 countries. Of the sales of 3rd- and 4th-generation cephalosporin preparations, none were for herd treatment; 51% were injectable preparations and 49% were intramammary preparations. For both fluoroquinolones and macrolides, the most-selling pharmaceutical forms were for herd treatment. The proportion of fluoroquinolones sold as oral solution was 78.5% and injections accounted for 20.8%. Premixes accounted for 45% of the total sales of macrolides in the 19 countries, oral powders for 36%, oral solutions for 11% and injectable preparations for 9%, respectively.
Overall in the 19 countries, the proportion of the sales in 2010 of antimicrobial VMPs applicable for herd treatment containing more than one active ingredient was relatively low. Of the total sales of premixes in the 19 countries, in tonnes of active ingredient, 88.5%, 11.5% and 0.01% were accounted for by products containing one, two and three active ingredients, respectively. For oral powders, the corresponding figures were 83.5%, 16.3% and 0.15%, respectively, and for oral solutions these were 84.6%, 15.3% and 0.09%. However, as it is possible to mix more than one premix/oral powder and oral solution into feed or drinking water, respectively, these data do not provide a reliable estimate of herd treatment through feed or drinking water with two or more active ingredients.
Monday October 15, 2012/ EMA/ European Union.
http://www.ema.europa.eu/
