Brussels, 05/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - A seminar, “Animal welfare = human welfare?”, was held in the European Parliament (EP), with Marit Paulsen (ALDE, Sweden) deputy chairwoman of the agriculture committee and rapporteur on the assessment of the animal welfare action plan 2006-2010 chairing the event. Alongside her sat Paola Testori-Coggi, Deputy Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG SANCO), Ivar Vagsholm, Professor in Microbial Food Safety at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and Meurig Raymond, Deputy President of the National Farmers' Union for England and Wales.
Testori-Coggi said that 2010 would be “a year of assessment in preparation for a new action plan next year”. She highlighted the fact that the market was integrated at European level, and that “we want to ensure that there are no differences”. She added that “we are a model at global level, but we still have to improve” as EU agriculture has to be more economically sustainable. She expressed the view that Europe could do more to implement legislation. She pointed out that an Article stated that animals were recognised, along with humans, as “sentient beings”. Poulson supported her comments, saying that, “ultimately, we are all animals”.
Vagsholm spoke on resistance to antibiotics in animals and humans. Resistance to this type of medicine was, he said, “a growing threat for public health and for animal health”. Over-prescribing antibiotics brought stronger and stronger resistance to them and meant that drugs had to be used to counter their lack of effect. Antibiotics are used on animals to increase production, but this harms good agricultural practice and biosecurity. He went on: “Antibiotics should not be a substitute for good husbandry or welfare conditions”. He recommended that animals should be reared without any antibiotics. He illustrated his argument with the example of Norwegian salmon production. In 1985, 40 tonnes of antibiotics were used in the production of 29,473 tonnes of salmon. Today, 300 kilos of antibiotics are used in the production of 744,220 tonnes of salmon. This equates to a 99% reduction in antibiotic use and a 25-fold increase in production. He expressed the wish that, instead of using antibiotics, we should use our brains! This would mean using vaccines wisely, in the same way that production is regulated. Raymond said that today's consumers were demanding ever more traceability and guarantees on the food they ate. According to one survey, 80% of those questioned said that labelling was very important, particularly for meat and poultry.
The speeches were followed by a debate, during which Per Olsen of Copa-Cogeca said that there had to be “fair competition in terms of animal welfare”, while Andrea Gavinelli, Head of the Animal Welfare Unit at DG SANCO suggested that “legislating is not the only way. Risk management is just as important”. Prevention and management were, he said, the challenges to be faced to ensure animal welfare and, in more general terms, healthy agriculture. (V.L.B./transl.rt)