§ 2.35 p.m.
§ LORD DOUGLAS OF BARLOCHMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the extent of the use of antibiotics in the feeding of animals intended for human consumption.]
THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (EARL WALDEGRAVE)My Lords, the sale or supply of compound feeding-stuffs and supplements containing antibiotics, other than on veterinary prescription, is confined by Statute to pig and poultry foods containing penicillin, aureomycin or oxytetracycline (often known as terramycin) in certain prescribed and limited proportions. Under regulations based on advice from the Agricultural Research Council in consultation with the Medical Research Council, the inclusion of these substances in manufactured feeding-stuffs is restricted to food for young pigs and poultry intended for early slaughter. Within the permitted categories of pigs and poultry the feeding of antibiotics, which may lead to improved rates of growth and better food conversion, is thought to be fairly widespread, but I regret that no precise information is available. This subject, however, is complex, and a Joint Committee of the Agricultural Research Council and the Medical Research Council is shortly to review the whole problem of antibiotics in animal feeding-stuffs.
§ LORD DOUGLAS OF BARLOCHMy Lords, while thanking the noble Earl for that Answer, may I ask him whether there 620 is any means by which a person purchasing either poultry or pig products can know whether they have been treated in this way or not?