The world’s biggest animal drugs company has taken down claims on its Indian website that its antibiotics can be used to fatten up livestock, though is still selling the products for this purpose.

In a story last year the Bureau revealed how Zoetis was selling antibiotic feed supplements to make animals grow quicker in India, at the same time as it was publicly supporting a ban on such a practice in the US. Using antibiotics as growth promoters in farming drives the creation of “superbugs” (bacteria which are resistant to the drugs used to treat them), which have become one of the world’s biggest public health threats.

The practice is banned in the US and European Union, but is still permitted in India (though that may be about to change). The country is the global epicentre of antibiotic resistance due to multiple factors which include the widespread use and misuse of the drugs in agriculture.

Responding to our story last October Zoetis said it followed the local regulations in countries where its products were sold. Its growth-promoting feed supplements remain on sale in India, but the company has now removed information about them from the Indian version of its website.

It told the Bureau it was reviewing whether to continue selling the products - a spokesperson said a “decision has not been made yet” as to whether these products would stay on the Indian market. The company is awaiting the outcome of an independent review which may change Indian law. The Bureau’s story on Zoetis last year followed a series of articles revealing the widespread use of antibiotic as growth promoters in India, including the “last hope” antibiotic colistin - so named because it is one of the only options available to try to save the life of a patient suffering an infection resistant to all other drugs. (Zoetis does not sell colistin; its growth promoting products are made from other drugs).