Brussels, 06/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Two reports by Swedish Liberal Marit Paulsen, adopted by the parliamentary committee on the environment, consumers and health, invited the next plenary session (Strasbourg, 15 May) to adopt stricter measures to combat salmonella and other zoonotic agents.
The first report calls for extension of the scope of the regulation proposed by the Commission to allow the setting in place of programmes for controlling these infectious diseases which are transmissible from animal to animal. Pleased with the aim in view, the members of the committee call for limits to be placed on the use of antibiotics in order to tackle the every-growing problem of resistance to antibiotics in various kinds of bacteriological zoonoses and all serotypes of salmonella found in animals for the food chain. Propagation of the totally resistant serotype Salmonella Typhimurium DT 104, imputed to the massive use of antibiotics necessary for intensive stock farming of suckled calves, and the DT 104, also observed in some intensive pig farming , are mainly targeted. Denouncing the Commission's intention to limit the control programmes to poultry and eggs, the members of the parliamentary committee call for these programmes to be extended to slaughter pigs, sheep, veal and other livestock. The plenary session is also invited to endorse an amendment aimed at preventing any Member State which does not have a control programme within the time set from selling products on the internal market, in order to prevent negligent producers from making financial gain from such negligence compared to those who are in order.
The second report supports the draft directive aimed at preventing the propagation of zoonoses through the use of improved detection, but invites the plenary to strengthen the scope of this text by insisting on the importance of surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and by clearly establishing that the whole food chain must be covered, including food for animals and livestock, as well as plant products, since the number of persons infected by such products in on the increase. The parliamentary committee also hopes the Parliament will take on board an amendment calling for data that is collected and processed in a uniform manner to also be comparable.