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The RUMA Alliance targets: an overview
Abstract
The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) was established to promote the highest standards of food safety, animal health and animal welfare in the British livestock industry. It has a current focus to deliver on the Government objective of identifying sector-specific targets for the reduction, refinement or replacement of antibiotics in animal agriculture. The creation and roll out of sector specific targets in 2017 through the RUMA Targets Task Force, has helped focus activity across the UK livestock sectors to achieve a 50% reduction in antibiotic use since 2014. This has been realised principally through voluntary multi-sector collaboration, cross sector initiatives, codes of practice, industry body support and farm assurance schemes. This article provides an overview of RUMA's work to date providing insight into the methods used to create the targets, why they are so important, the impact they are having and how ongoing support and robust data are vital components in achieving the latest set of targets.
The Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) was established in 1997 to promote the highest standards of food safety, animal health and animal welfare in the British livestock industry. It is an independent non-profit group with a unique cross-sector role comprising representatives from organisations covering all stages of the food chain from ‘farm to fork’. RUMA brings together organisations from right across the livestock supply chain and seeks to promote a co-ordinated and integrated approach to best practice in the use of medicines. RUMA champions responsible use of animal medicines in UK livestock by producing specific ‘guidelines on responsible use’ and has a current focus on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is co-ordinated through a range of collaborative activities that contribute to the UK 5-year AMR strategy, most notably driven through the RUMA Targets Task Force (TTF).
AMR is one of the biggest challenges facing society and the medical and agricultural sectors globally. A core part of the RUMA's role is to ensure that the UK is appreciated and recognised as a major food producing country that adopts responsible use of animal medicines to deliver world leading farm animal health and associated welfare.
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