A significant proportion of medically important antibiotics are not given to humans to treat disease, but instead are administered to livestock to prevent the spread of illness or to promote growth, especially in intensive factory farms.

It is this overuse of antibiotics in the livestock sector that is often cited as a key factor behind the emergence of AMR superbugs, and the reason that in March 2016, a $1 trillion group of investors formed to engage with ten of the world’s largest restaurant and fast-food chains.

The investors, coordinated by the FAIRR Initiative and ShareAction, engaged with the companies to ask them to end the routine non-therapeutic use of antibiotics important to human health in their global meat and poultry supply chains.