NOAH Welcomes Commission Report

NOAH has welcomed the publication of the Executive Summary of the EU Commission's Scientific Report on Antimicrobial Resistance. The report identifies no new hazards from the use of antibiotics in animal feeds, presents no evidence to support the 'theoretical' risks to man. NOAH argues that any decisions made as a result of the report should give due consideration to the very considerable benefits of these products.

Many of the proposals in the report are already in place in the UK, through the action of quality assurance schemes, MAFF and its very stringent licensing system, the Department of Health, and the RUMA alliance. RUMA (Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture) involves organisations representing every stage of the "farm to fork" chain, promoting a co-ordinated and integrated approach to best practice. The food chain is thus acting together to ensure the safety of British meat offered to consumers.

NOAH notes that the Commission's Scientific Steering Committee's remit was to examine all uses of antibiotics, for humans, animals and plants, with a view to reduce the threat of bacterial resistance in humans, and welcomes the balanced nature of its findings.

NOAH welcomes the acknowledgement in the report of the dangers of precipitate action, a point the industry has been making for many years. Currently, an in-depth surveillance study, for use in risk assessment, is underway in six European countries involving tens of thousands of bacterial samples - its results should be awaited before any further action is taken.

Therefore, the UK animal health industry calls on the Commission and the Council to recognise the full scientific authority of its own independent Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition (SCAN) which already conducts thorough risk assessments for the approval (or withdrawal) of in-feed additives. A product-by-product scientific review is already underway in EU law, and this should be allowed to reach its conclusion before any decisions are made.

2 June 1999

Notes for Editors

1. For further information contact Roger Cook or Alison Glennon at NOAH, tel. +44 (0)20 8367 3131, or visit the NOAH website.

2. The National Office of Animal Health was formed on 1 January 1986 to represent the UK companies which research, develop, manufacture and market licensed animal health products. The association has 34 corporate members and 10 associate members. In 1998 NOAH's members accounted for around 95% of the £384 million UK animal health market, with additional valuable exports.

3. The Executive Summary of the report, "Opinion of the Scientific Steering Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance" was published on Monday 31 May. The full report is expected later this week.