§ Mr. RookerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research into the effects of poultry feed antibiotics on human drug resistance he has evaluated in formulating voting intentions in the Council of Ministers. [10764]
§ Mrs. BrowningThe Government take very seriously the possibility of the development of antibiotic resistance in humans and animals as a result of the use of antibiotics in animal feed. This is carefully examined as part of the safety assessment of applications for authorisations for antimicrobial products, and is kept under review by the independent scientific Veterinary Products Committee, which advises the Government on the safety, quality and efficacy of veterinary medicines. In considering the use of antibiotics, the committee has consistently followed the principles established in the report of the joint committee on the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry and veterinary medicine—the Swann report—of 1969. The VPC's policy has been that new antibiotics should not necessarily be precluded from therapeutic use in animals but that their prophylactic use should be discouraged. The committee considers each case on its merits against this background.
In 1995 Germany and Denmark took unilateral action to ban the use of avoparcin in animal feed because of an alleged link between its use and the development of bacterial resistance to vancomycin in human medicine. The EU Commission's Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition—SCAN—evaluated data submitted by 163W Germany and Denmark, including research which suggested the possibility of transfer of resistance between animals and man. SCAN concluded that the evidence presented did not establish a risk to human or animal health or to the environment. The VPC examined SCAN' s report and supported its conclusions.