HC Deb 23 March 2004 vol 419 cc683-4W
Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 3 March 2004,Official Report, column 930W, what action she is taking to reduce the usage of veterinary antibiotics. [160996]

Mr. Bradshaw

The Government recognises that animals do become ill and need to be treated for both animal welfare and consumer safety reasons. Antimicrobials play an important part in maintaining healthy food-producing and companion animals. However, the Government firmly believes that the use of these products should not replace good farm management and animal husbandry systems.

The Government's aim is to reduce the use of antimicrobials on farm as part of an overall strategy of managing the risk to humans from antimicrobial resistance.

In addition to supporting the EU wide ban on antimicrobial growth promoters from 1 January 2006, key elements of this strategy include the collection and publication of information on the quantities of antimicrobials sold each year for veterinary use in the UK and the promotion of optimal and responsible use of antimicrobials in animal rearing. In this context the Government has worked closely with the Responsible Use of Medicines Alliance (RUMA) in drawing up their Codes of Practice on responsible use of veterinary medicines for cattle, sheep, poultry and pig producers.

Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 3 March 2004,Official Report, column 930W, what recent research she has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the effect on humans of receiving antibiotics through the eating of meat and poultry, with particular reference to hospital superbugs. [160997]

Mr. Bradshaw

Defra's research programme into antimicrobials is designed to take forward the issues identified by the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF) in their 1999 Report on Microbial Antibiotic Resistance in Relation to Food Safety. This concluded that further research was required into the extent to which antibiotic use in animals contributes to the overall problem of antimicrobial resistance in humans.

This programme is therefore investigating whether the administration of antibiotics to animals results in the selection of resistant bacteria that may be transferred to humans in food and cause infections that are difficult to treat. It is focused on bacteria found on farms and in slaughterhouses that can cause human disease, such as Salmonella, Escherischia coli and Campylobacter. It does not include isolates found in hospitals and the evidence does not in indicate that food is a major source of resistant organisms in hospitals.

This research will be evaluated as part of a full science review of the programme being arranged for late 2004.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate carries out extensive surveillance for residues of veterinary medicines (including antimicrobials) in meat and other animal products. Over the five years between 1998 and 2002 (the last year for which figures are available) nearly 60,000 red meat and poultry samples were analysed. Antimicrobial residues above the Ell's permitted Maximum Residues Levels were detected in less than 0.2 per cent. of these samples.

Back to