The Responsible Use of Medicines Alliance – Companion Animal and Equine (RUMA CA&E) has published its fourth Annual Progress Report, highlighting its own work as well as industry achievements and initiatives in antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), plus unveiling its next strategic priority: sustainable parasite control.
Data from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), based on the UK-Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance Sales Surveillance (2024) Report[1], shows encouraging trends:
- Dogs: Antibiotic use (mg/kg) has declined annually since 2016 (except for between 2020 and 2021), with a 12% reduction between 2023–2024 and over 70% since 2014. HP-CIA use is at its lowest since 2014 with an overall reduction of 59% in that time and is down 6% year-on-year (2023-2024).
- Cats: After an 11% rise in 2022–2023, antibiotic use fell by 7% in 2023–2024. HP-CIA use decreased by 6% year-on-year (2023-2024) and 46% overall since 2014.
- Topical antibiotics: Over 10 years, sales have dropped by 48% in dogs and 49% in cats.
The report also covers key updates on two major initiatives; the launch of the first ever National AMU Reduction Targets for companion animals (which have already attracted widespread industry support and media coverage), and the Alliance’s parasiticides approach, both of which were shared at the Alliance’s inaugural webinar series early in November, followed by a presentation at London Vet Show in the Zoetis Learning Academy entitled: ‘Antibiotics and parasiticides – what does the future hold for stewardship?
Steve Howard, RUMA CA&E Secretary General, confirmed parasiticides as the next core focus of the Alliance, alongside ongoing AMU efforts and future work on other medicine classes.
Overview of the RUMA CA&E Parasiticides Approach
Since its inception in 2020, RUMA CA&E initially focused its efforts on the responsible use of antibiotics, but its remit also extends to supporting discussions around the responsible use and stewardship of other companion animal medicines. RUMA CA&E recently created a short-term sub-group which brought key experts together to define what role it should play in addressing ‘medicines stewardship beyond antimicrobials’. In the first instance, the group focused on a risk and impact exercise to assess from a One Health perspective the use of anthelmintic, endoparasiticide and ectoparasiticide products, considering the potential development of animal resistance to these products, and the environmental/wildlife and human impact they may have and grading the risks from significant, moderate, low or not a factor. This work also extended to consider endocrine products and endocrine disruptors, controlled drugs and also disinfectants. Any available evidence was also taken into account, but it became clear from the outset that there are significant gaps in evidence on the wider impacts of the use of certain classes of medicines on resistance (for animals and humans), and on the environment.
Steve says: “With regard to parasiticides specifically, the group noted that these medicines play a crucial role in protecting animal and human health and welfare and therefore, there is a need to balance responsible and correct use and educate owners to avoid misapplication. A good example of the latter is the contamination of water by owners inadvertently washing off external parasite treatments either by bathing dogs or by letting their pets swim in waterways too soon after application. More evidence gathering will be important moving forwards to understand some of the wider impacts on resistance and on the environment of these and other classes of medicines in order to develop accurate guidance for the profession but in the absence of that evidence, driving more responsible use, accurate application and safe disposal by pet owners, would most certainly have a positive impact in the meantime from a One Health perspective.”
The Alliance’s parasiticides position statement is:
‘To encourage and support animal owners, the veterinary profession and other sources to supply, use, and dispose of parasiticides, in a manner which balances the impact and benefits of these products on people, animals and the environment’.
The Alliance will deliver its parasiticides work by:
- Supporting the profession with appropriate and proportionate guidance around the responsible use of parasiticides. This has started with the creation of a parasiticides ‘resources hub’ on its website which contains useful insights and resources on the responsible use of parasiticides from across the profession and in time, RUMA CA&E will create some of its own resources.
- Identifying suitable ways to track and report usage to protect the efficacy of these important treatments. This will be led by the RUMA CA&E Alliance’s Targets and Measures Working Group.
- Creating resources that practices can use to help educate owners about good application of parasiticides.
- Launching a campaign to educate owners about protecting the environment from the effects of inappropriate disposal.
The new parasiticides resources area can be accessed here.
The RUMA CA&E National AMU Reduction Targets – headline summary
The targets have been developed by one of the Alliance’s sub-groups – The RUMA CA&E Targets and Measures Working Group* (T&MWG). This sub-group comprises companion animal experts representing all parts of the companion animal sector, who have come together to formulate a set of realistic and achievable AMU reduction targets. The group has looked at AMS strategies, trends, usage breakdown, and guidelines currently in use at a national, group, and practice level, plus individual and disease-based considerations for the measurement of antimicrobial use.
National Targets
Ambition:
- Overall reduction in AMU by 30% (DDDVet dog/cat antimicrobial use) and maintaining the current trend in dogs.
- Reduce the use of HP-CIAs in cats by 50%.
To help achieve these national targets a number of condition specific ‘In Practice Focus Areas’ have also been defined:
- Antimicrobial use in cat fight wounds and cat bite abscesses – contributing to reductions in overall usage and the targeted reduction in HPCIA usage in cats.
- Antimicrobials use in acute, self-limiting diarrhoea in dogs – contributing to reductions in overall usage and ensuring use of appropriate antibiotics when they are necessary.
Resources to help support companion animal practices to reduce the use of antimicrobials in these conditions are currently being developed by RUMA CA&E and will be launched in 2026.
In summary
More detail on all of the Alliance’s work and examples of member activities can be found in the full report here. Publication costs for the RUMA CA&E Annual Report were kindly sponsored by Animalcare.
Gwyn Jones, RUMA CA&E Chair says: “It has been a busy and very productive 12 months for RUMA CA&E, and I remain impressed by the medicine stewardship efforts of the profession and wider industry, which are evident right across the companion animal and equine sectors.
“November 2025 marked a very important milestone in RUMA CA&E’s journey with the launch of the first ever national AMU reduction targets for companion animals and our parasiticides strategy. 2026 will see each of these areas gathering even more pace and we look forward to reporting back on progress this time next year.”
[1] Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance 2024 – GOV.UK