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Reports and Memo's
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Brussels, october 1995
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Decisive years for european consumer protection
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Antibiotics should be banned in the production of slaughter animals
The consumers are not only against the use of hormones, but they also object to the use of medicines in the rearing of slaughter animals. The regular addition of antibiotics to animal feed is an act of irresponsibility in terms of consumer health since the disease-causing agents become gradually immune and the antibiotics are no longer effective for human beings in the case of urgent need.
We call upon the European Commission in particular not to submit proposals on the use of antibiotics in foodstuffs. On 28 March 1995 the Standing Committee on Animal Feed should have normally authorised the use of the antibiotic known as « avopharcin » in feedingstuffs intended for dairy cows. However this did not occur. Following this, the Commission addressed itself directly to the Council on 24 April 1995, in Document COM(95) 132 final, so that the corresponding amendment be made in Directive 70/524/EEC on additives in animal feed.
Avopharcin, according to reports of the ARD economic magazine of 12 September 1995, has been included in mass rearing of poultry and pigs. As one of the most powerful antibiotics, it still cannot destroy all the germs and therefore like the other antibiotics also, contributes to the « breeding » of ever more resistant germs. It is obvious what this implies for human beings once they are subject to the use of antibiotics. That is the reason why this antibiotic should not be allowed in milk production. All antibiotics should be abolished in the production of meat in the interest of public health. Ever larger quantities of antibiotics obtain ever less effective results. In the end, we are in the same position as before the discovery of antibiotics. One of the main problems, in addition, is that ever more powerful antibiotics cannot be discovered quickly enough.
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[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]
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