The Indian government is set to ban the “last hope” antibiotic colistin from being used to make livestock grow faster, in an effort to tackle the rise of superbugs.

Colistin has been used for years on farm animals despite being one of the most important drugs in human medicine. It is known as the “last resort” drug as it is given to patients seriously ill with infections which have become resistant to most other antibiotics.

When given to livestock in small doses every day it makes the animals grow faster - a practice which ends up breeding colistin-resistant bacteria which can then infect humans.

The use of antibiotics to artificially fatten up animals (known as growth promotion) is a major driver of the world's growing antibiotic resistance crisis and as such the World Health Organisation says such usage should be banned.

The European Union, China, Brazil and the US have all banned the use of colistin as a growth promoter because of the superbug threat, but the practice had continued in India, as highlighted in a series of stories by the Bureau last year.