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Veterinary medicines must not under any circumstances serve to improve the performance or compensate for poor animal husbandry, says the new law voted on by Parliament this Thursday. The law, when introduced, would limit the use of antimicrobials unless they are prescribed by a vet.
The law also states that imported foods will have to meet these new EU standards and that antibiotics cannot be used to enhance the growth of animals.
The agreement still has to be formally adopted by Council before publication on the Official Journal
To help tackle antimicrobial resistance, the law would empower the European Commission to select antimicrobials to be reserved only for treating humans.
The agreement with EU ministers was adopted with 583 votes to 16 and 20 abstentions. The agreement still has to be formally adopted by Council before publication on the Official Journal.
“The devil is however in the detail,” commented Roxane Feller, secretary general of AnimalhealthEurope.
“There are a considerable number of implementing measures – 29 – in total meaning that there is still a lot of work to be done to agree the finer details of how we will implement the changes."
Medicated feed
In a separate vote, MEPs also approved new rules on more responsible ways to produce, sell and use medicated feed to tackle the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
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