CFG
01/02 rev. 1
The risk to human
health and safety from the use of antibiotics in animal production.
Foodaware draws attention to the problem of antibiotic resistance
and the consequent reduction in the effectiveness of antibiotics used
to treat infections in humans, with increasingly fatal consequences.
Antibiotics have a vital role to play in human and animal medicine.
However, antibiotic resistance in human medicine has increased dramatically
over the past 25 years and Foodaware is aware that no new antibiotics
are likely to become available in the near future.
Foodaware recognises that this is a global problem. The risk to human
health from antibiotic resistant bacteria is so great that any way
of reducing it must be examined and acted upon.
Foodaware acknowledges that the increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria
occurring in human medicine may result from excessive and unnecessary
use of antibiotics in treating infections in humans.
Foodaware notes that there is widespread concern about the transfer
of antibiotic resistant bacteria from animals to humans. Humans can
acquire resistant bacteria from animals, directly via food or through
contact with the animal or animal foodstuff or from living near to
farm animals.
Foodaware is aware that antibiotics are used widely in farming - as
therapeutic medicines, as routine prophylaxis and as growth promoters
- and that their usage in animals may be excessive and unnecessary.
Foodaware notes that resistant strains of four bacteria - Salmonella,
Campylobacter, Enterococci and E.coli, which cause disease in humans,
have been transmitted from animals to humans, and shown to have adverse
consequences for human health.
Foodaware is aware that over the past 25 years multiple resistance
to antibiotics has been increasing for the most common salmonella
infections in humans. There has been a similar upward trend in the
same salmonellas in food animals. One strain of Salmonella typhimurium
is now resistant to five of the most commonly used antibiotics.
Foodaware is aware that antibiotic-resistant enterococcus can transmit
its resistance to other bacteria and it is suspected that antibiotic
resistant bacteria may be selected in the animal, contaminate the
foodstuff and transfer resistance to other bacteria in the human gut.
Foodaware is extremely concerned about bacterial cross-resistance
to antibiotics within the same group. This is happening within the
following groups: the glycopeptides, fluoroquinolones, macrolides
and, most recently, the streptogramins. Antibiotics used in animal
medicine are not sufficiently dissimilar to those used in human medicine.
Foodaware is very aware of the difficulty of obtaining comprehensive
data on the use of all antibiotics on farms in the UK and many other
EU Member States. Data are needed on the amount used in animals for
each type of use (growth promotion, prophylactic and therapeutic),
which antibiotics are used and which antibiotics are also used in
human medicine, in order to assess the real impact of the use of antibiotics
in livestock production.
Foodaware considers that the whole issue of antibiotic resistance
needs to be examined at EU level and welcomes the Commission proposal
to do so. Mechanisms in the EU for monitoring and controlling the
spread of antibiotic resistance are inadequate. There is a lack of
co-ordination, transparency and independence in the EU Scientific
Committees on antibiotics and those Committees lack experts on antibiotics.
Foodaware is aware of concerns about antibiotic resistance in Sweden,
Finland and Denmark, where there is stricter legislation on antibiotic
usage in animal feedstuffs.
Foodaware considers that antibiotic resistance is a prime example
of an issue to which the precautionary principle should have been
applied at an early stage, and an issue which demonstrates why it
is so important to apply the precautionary principle.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Foodaware calls for:
- A rigorous precautionary approach to the use of antibiotics
in both humans and animals, with the aim of achieving:-
- a total ban on the use of antibiotics as growth promoters
in animal feedstuffs within the European Union.
- a ban on the prophylactic use of antibiotics except where
disease has been identified in an animal within a group of animals.
- a ban within the EU on the prophylactic use of antibiotics
in animal medicine which have actual or potential cross-resistance
to those used in human medicine.
- All antibiotic usage in animals to be subject to veterinary
prescription.
- A specific EU policy to reduce the therapeutic and prophylactic
use of antibiotics in animals over the short to medium term.
- A coherent EU-wide strategy to improve hygiene on farms, with
firm monitoring. This could cut down substantially on the need
for prophylactic and therapeutic antibiotic treatment.
- Within CODEX and WHO, priority to be given to measures to reduce
antibiotic resistance because it is a global issue.
- EU guidelines to be drawn up governing best practice in both
animal and human medicine to ensure that all antibiotics are prescribed
rationally.
- The EU to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the levels
of antibiotic use in Member States and to examine the reasons
for any differences between Member States. This could be done
under the Scientific Co-operation Programme (SCOOP). A specific
EU Scientific Committee should be given responsibility to examine
the risk to human health from the use of antibiotics in animals
and animal production. A multidisciplinary approach to the issue
must be taken by including human health and food scientists.
- More transparency in the decision-making process of EU scientific
and regulatory committees working on antibiotics.
- A ban on antibiotic marker genes in genetically modified crops.
- EU Member States which currently have more stringent controls
on antibiotic usage in animals to be able to retain them in the
interest of human health protection.
May 2002
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