Catherine McLaughlin, chief animal health and welfare advisor with the NFU and a director of AMTRA, has been elected the new chair of RUMA, the UK agriculture and food industry alliance, which promotes responsible use of medicines in farm animals.

Formerly deputy chair of the organisation, she takes over the reins from Gwyn Jones at the end of his final term in the role, with Dawn Howard, NOAH’s chief executive, appointed as new deputy chair.

Ms McLaughlin said: “Over the past six years, the UK livestock industry has secured remarkable progress in voluntarily improving antibiotic stewardship, halving use to achieve some of the lowest sales in Europe both overall and of highest-priority Critically Important Antibiotics.

“However, there’s more to do. New challenges are emerging all the time – including resistance to other medicines such as anthelmintics, novel scientific research that will inform changes in practices, and rapidly-evolving political, climatic and social environments.”

Ms McLaughlin added that steering the livestock sectors through this will continue to be RUMA’s remit.

“I look forward to bringing my knowledge and experience – alongside that of my new deputy chair Dawn, the members of the RUMA board and the Independent Scientific Group – to help the livestock industries face these challenges,” she said.

New deputy chair Dawn Howard said she was honoured to take on the role and looked forward to working with Ms McLaughlin and other new colleagues at RUMA. 

“My ambition is that we continue to deliver and build on our success in raising the standards of responsible use of medicines for the benefit of farm animals in the UK,” said Ms Howard.