Studies show that tons of antibiotics are still used in UK poultry farming amid growing concerns about the spread of drug-resistant diseases.

Tons of antibiotics, known as ionophores, are sold in the UK that, according to AMR campaigners, pose a threat to human health and the environment.

Ionophors are used to prevent coccidiosis of intestinal diseases that affects chickens when they swallow chicken droppings.

Campaign participants say that in intensive poultry farms, when the space for each chicken is smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, this disease is inevitable. Campaigners fear that certain ionophores may cause resistance to antibiotics, which are medically important for humans.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock had previously warned that antimicrobial resistance is as much a threat to humanity as climate change, and has called for immediate action to reduce the misuse of antibiotics.