04 September 2026
The Netherlands Veterinary Medicines Authority (SDa) has released its annual surveillance report on antimicrobial consumption in livestock for 2025, revealing mixed trends across the Dutch poultry industry. While the broader livestock sector achieved an overall 6.8% decrease in total antibiotic consumption compared with 2024, the broiler sector recorded an unexpected 24.7% increase, with total consumption rising from 5.2 to 6.5 DDDANAT.
A closer examination of the data indicates that this increase was primarily driven by conventional broiler operations. Median farm exposure in conventional flocks increased by 50.7% to 9.5 DDDAF, placing 56% of conventional broiler farms above the SDa action threshold of 8 DDDAF. Key contributing factors highlighted in the report include an apparent decline in day-old chick quality, prompting increased interventions during the critical first week of life, as reflected by a 9% decrease in average treatment weight. The report also points to a modest market shift back toward conventional breeds from slower-growing alternatives.
In contrast, farms raising slower-growing breeds maintained exceptionally low antibiotic use, with a median of 0.0 DDDAF; 66% of these farms administered no antibiotics throughout the year.
The report also raised concerns regarding antimicrobial selection. In broilers, second-choice antimicrobials accounted for 57.6% of total consumption, while flumequine, a quinolone that is not classified as a fluoroquinolone, increased by 30.7% to 1.08 DDDANAT. This upward trend could create compliance challenges ahead of the forthcoming Dutch NWVAB veterinary guidelines, which align with European Medicines Agency (EMA) AMEG standards and classify quinolones as restricted "Category B" antimicrobials, considered critically important for human medicine.
Across other poultry sectors, antimicrobial use remained substantially lower.
DDDANAT (Defined Daily Dose Animal National): The average number of antibiotic treatment days per animal-year within a given production category at the national level.
DDDAF (Defined Daily Dose Animal Farm): The average number of antibiotic treatment days per animal present on an individual farm over the course of a year.
Het gebruik van antibiotica bij landbouwhuisdieren in 2025: Trends, benchmarken bedrijven en dierenartsen (SDa Report SDa/1166/2026, published June 2026).
