§ Mr. Lawrenceasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the regulations governing the use of arsenicals as they affect the egg production industry in (a) the EEC (b) France and (c) the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. StrangEEC Directive 70/524 controls the use of additives in feeding stuffs and does not at present permit the use of arsenic compounds as additives.
French legislation forbids the use of these compounds as additives in poultry feeding stuffs and prohibits the importation of poultry products from countries where similar rules do not apply.
Authority for the use of medicinal feed additives in the United Kingdom derives 434W from licences issued under the Medicines Act. Licences for arsenical feed additives have recently been amended so as to make illegal the sale and use of arsenic compounds for the rearing and feeding of birds used for commercial egg production. This should make it possible for our egg exports to meet French requirements.
EEC legislation, and national legislation in France and the United Kingdom, does not prevent the use of arsenic compounds where prescribed by a veterinarian.
§ Mr. Lawrenceasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the regulations governing the use of antibiotics as they affect the egg production industry in (a) the EEC (b) France and (c) the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. StrangEEC Directive 70/524 on additives in feeding stuffs prohibits the incorporation, except against prescription, of the principal antibiotics, including the penicillins and tetracyclines, in feed for laying hens. As in the United Kingdom law, the directive permits flavomycin and zinc bacitracin to be used within specified limits. Certain other antibiotics, namely manganese bacitracin, erythromycin, hygromycin B, neomycin and soframycin may, temporarily, be used at the discretion of member States. Of the latter group of antibiotics, France does not permit any to be used for laying hens, and the United Kingdom allows limited use of only one, namely hygromycin B.