As antimicrobial resistance (AMR) emerges as a looming global health crisis, India’s apex drug regulator has asked states and Union Territories to begin systematically monitoring the use of antibiotics in livestock, a key driver long overlooked in policy and practice.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on June 5, 2025, issued a directive to all states and UTs, calling for detailed information on veterinary pharmaceutical companies engaged in the manufacture, distribution and sale of veterinary antibiotics. Additionally, states have been asked to nominate senior nodal officers or drug controllers to oversee Antimicrobial Use (AMU) data collection and coordinate with national Joint Working Groups.
This action aligns with the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) initiative to build a structured AMU reporting framework, towards which it has requested support from the CDSCO.
The framework will enable the systematic collection of data related to the production, import and sale of antibiotics, as well as the tracking of registered veterinary antimicrobials. The initiative also includes the development of a robust monitoring mechanism for the use of veterinary drugs in livestock, with the goal of ensuring rational use and reducing misuse. The initiative is being carried out in collaboration with state licensing authorities, veterinary pharmaceutical companies and other key stakeholders.
AMR is emerging as a major global health threat and is anticipated to evolve into a silent pandemic. The primary drivers of resistance are the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in both humans and food-animal production. This is a step in the right direction, as there has so far remained a major gap due to the lack of data on how much and what kind of antibiotics are being used in food animals in the country.
Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been advocating for the need to monitor antibiotic use in livestock and aquaculture systems for quite some time across various platforms. It had earlier highlighted the use and misuse of critically important antibiotics in food production systems in India for treatment, prevention and control purposes, as well as for growth promotion.
CSE had recommended the need to set up systems and mechanisms to gather data and enhance understanding on the use of critically important antimicrobials and resistance in food-producing animals. The data could be collected for different food-animal sectors and for therapeutic or non-therapeutic purposes, or according to types of antibiotics. Such baseline data is a prerequisite to plan and measure the success of any intervention and to set national antibiotic reduction targets, such as the Muscat Ministerial Manifesto on AMR, which India endorsed along with 46 other countries in 2022 at the third global high-level ministerial conference held in Oman.