Development in antibiotic consumption among pigs in Denmark

In 2022, the use of medicinal zinc for weaned pigs was phased out across the EU due to environmental concerns. Zinc is a vital mineral for both animals and humans. If higher levels than the biological requirement are added to the feed immediately after weaning, this has a preventive effect against weaning diarrhoea in pigs. Unfortunately, it can also accumulate in the environment. It was therefore decided that, in the future, zinc could only be added to feed in quantities that meet the biological requirement.

It was expected that this would lead to an increase in the need to treat weaning diarrhoea and therefore an increase in antibiotic consumption. 

Antibiotic consumption can be calculated in various ways. As regards the fear of developing resistance, it is more relevant to perform the calculation based on the number of doses used to produce one pig than to use, for example, the weight of the antibiotics used. When antibiotic consumption is calculated for humans, doses are used to monitor developments over time or between countries. At EU level, efforts are underway to develop calculations that use doses instead of kg when comparing consumption between different countries.  

In this calculation, the number of doses used for the production of a piglet, a weaned pig and a finisher has been applied. The number of doses used per pig is taken from the official Danish medicine database, VETSTAT, and the number of produced pigs is taken from the Danish state’s official database, Statistics Denmark. VETSTAT calculates consumption for the three groups – sows and piglets, weaned pigs and finishers. A dose for a 200 kg sow is obviously greater than a dose for a weaned pig weighing 8 kg. To make the numbers compatible, they have been converted to the number of kilograms of pig treated to produce a piglet, a weaned pig up to 30 kg and a finisher. Finally, the total consumption for the production of one pig throughout its life has been calculated as the sum of the consumption of the three age groups. The result is shown in table 1 for the years 2020 to 2024

From 2020 to 2022, the gradual decline that we saw in the years from 2010 continued. The trend reflects the fact that in the first half of 2022, consumption fell further, but following the ban on the use of medicinal zinc consumption increased in the second half of 2022. Moreover, when the zinc ban was fully phased in in 2023, total antibiotic consumption for the production of one finisher increased by approximately 12%. However, this is still far below 2010’s level.  

Consumption in 2024 fell compared to 2023 and is approaching the pre-zinc ban level. When Denmark phased out the use of antibiotic growth promoters in 2000, there was a similar trend, with a rise in the consumption of antibiotics for treatment. In fact, it took a couple of years before the entire production had adapted to the new production conditions. It would therefore appear that we are seeing a similar trend here.  

In response to this challenge, Danish pig producers have adopted a wide range of measures, including optimising hygiene, climate and feed. More widespread use of vaccines is an important tool in this respect. In 2024, 80 per cent more vaccines were used for weaned pigs than in 2021, before the zinc ban.  

The latest report on antibiotic consumption for livestock in the EU (ESVAC) is from 2022. Calculated as antibiotic consumption for livestock, consumption of antibiotics per kg of livestock in Denmark is less than 50 per cent of the consumption per kg livestock in the EU.