In connection with this, a research programme was initiated to document the effects. The results of the research show that phasing out the AGP’s was a success:

• Antibiotic resistance among bacteria in animals has been drastically reduced
• The total use of antibiotics in food animal production has been reduced to less than half in the period from 1998 to 2001.
• Denmark remains among the countries in Europe that use least antibiotics for the treatment of illnesses in animals.
• It has had minimal influence on the productivity.
• The growth of chickens has been unchanged. It now takes an extra 16 grammes of feed to produce one kilo af chicken, but the price of this is compensated by savings made on AGPs.
• The growth rate of fattening swine has continued to increase, and feed efficiency is unchanged. The theoretical extra cost to the producers is estimated at 5-6 DKK (~0.7 Euro) per slaughtered pig.
• While 100% of weaning pigs received antibiotics for growth promotion daily before phasing out the AGP’s the termination, only 12% of weaning pigs are now treated with antibiotics each day.
• Consumer prices for pork and chicken have not risen because AGPs are no longer used.
• Resistant bacteria are still found in low numbers in the environment of herds/flocks that earlier used AGPs. If used again, antibiotic resistance would probably increase again.

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