§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what guidance he has given on the use of avilamycin in animals intended for human consumption; and what the possible consequences for human antibiotic protection are. [154808]
§ Ms Quin[holding answer 22 March 2001]Avilamycin is an anti-microbial growth promoter authorised throughout the European Union as a feed additive under Directive 70/524/EC. This Directive includes a provision that before a feed additive can be authorised it must be shown not to adversely affect human health, animal health or the environment at the level permitted in feedingstuffs.
Avilamycin is in a class of antibiotics that are not currently authorised for use as human medicines nor does it select for cross-resistance to any currently authorised human antimicrobial. In any future discussions on the use of avilamycin, the Government will continue to be guided by the principles established in the Report of the Joint Committee on the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry and veterinary medicines (The Swann Report) of 1969. This report proposed that antibiotics authorised for growth promotion should be restricted to those which have little or no application as therapeutic agents in man or animals, and which will not impair the efficacy of prescribed therapeutic drugs through the development of resistant strains of organisms.