The representatives of the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached agreement on Tuesday evening 19 June on the text on the manufacture, marketing and use of medicated feeds. The aim of the new rules is to better tackle antimicrobial resistance (see EUROPE 12040).
The text agreed still has to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Parliament rapporteur Clara Eugenia Aguilera García (S&D, Spain) welcomed the agreement reached. “We have managed to replace disjointed rules dating back to 1990, with modern and uniform ones that will greatly increase the safety of medicated feed in the EU and will step up our fight against antimicrobial resistance”, she stated.
The new rules will ban prophylactic, i.e. preventive use of antibiotic medicated feed for food-producing animals. Metaphylactic use, i.e. treating the whole group of animals when only one or a few are infected, will be allowed only when the risk of spread of infection is high and there is no appropriate alternative.
Under no circumstances must antibiotics be used to enhance the performance of food-producing animals. Prescriptions for medicated feed containing antibiotics should be always issued by a veterinarian after a proper physical examination and diagnosis.
To ensure antimicrobial resistance is tackled efficiently, MEPs pushed for and won extension of the new rules on medicated feed (prepared by feed mills or professionals) to all animal medicines administered orally, whether via feed or drinking water, including so-called “top dressing” (prepared by farmers). The agreed text instructs the Commission to consult the European Medicines Agency and then establish appropriate rules that would close existing loopholes.
Cross-contamination. One year after the regulation comes into force, the Commission should define science-based specific maximum levels for cross-contaminations of various active medicinal substances from feed. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) should be consulted to this end. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)