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NPA In-Feed Reporting Scheme

March 2015

In order to demonstrate responsible use, British pig-keepers must now collate their annual use of antimicrobials, including in-feed, and demonstrate they have reviewed the figure with their vet. To make life easier for pig-keepers, NPA's Allied Industry Group has been working with feed companies to ensure data for in-feed use is automatically mailed to each pig unit every six months. The industry's key compounders have already signed up to the scheme and others will follow over the coming months.

Participating companies so far:

  • ABN
  • A-One Feed Supplements
  • Devenish Nutrition
  • ForFarmers
  • GLW Feeds
  • Thompsons of York

More companies will be listed on the NPA website as they sign up to the NPA In-Feed Reporting Scheme.

For data protection reasons, reports will be sent only to each feed company's customers and not to any third parties. However customers are free to share the information with others (vets etc) if they wish.


• From October 2015, any pig-keepers who cannot produce an accurate antibiotic annual-use figure will receive a nonconformance from their Assured Food Standards assessor.

• Pig-keepers are responsible for compiling their own antibiotic annual-use figure, and from October will be penalised if they fail to do so, but the NPA In-Feed Reporting Scheme will make the task considerably less onerous.

• But note, if a producer's feed company fails to send a medicated feed statement automatically, it is a producer's responsibility to request the data.

• Annual-use reporting for pigs was introduced by Assured Food Standards in October 2014 in response to considerable pressure on the sector to demonstrate responsible use of antibiotics.

• Further measures will almost certainly be introduced by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate in the months and years ahead and it is expected this will put increasing pressure on in-feed use.

• However NPA argues that in-feed medication is more targeted than top-dressing—which is the preferred method in Germany and the Netherlands—and is markedly less likely to contribute to resistance in the human population.