Since 2014, farms above a certain size have been required to biannually report their use of the drugs as part of the agriculture department's strategy to help combat resistance and preserve the usefulness of antibiotics.

This is the fourth period in a row that Germany has reported a reduction in the use of these therapies.

Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt commented: "We have created a successful approach to consistently measure the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry and we continue to work hard to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. In particular, the application of so-called reserve antibiotics must be restricted. This will only succeed if veterinary and human medicine work closely together."