German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir is pushing a bill through the country’s parliament that aims for stricter control of antibiotics use in animal husbandry to counter the increasing risk of resistant germs. But associations warn restrictions should not come at the expense of animal health.

Read the original German article here.

The tabled draft amendments to the Veterinary Medicines Act proposed by Özdemir are designed to ensure it provides tighter controls on antibiotics use in animal husbandry.

This includes widening the scope of animals covered by rules to minimise the use of antibiotics and strengthening the enforcement powers of the authorities on the ground by enabling them to order farms to put in place reduction measures.

“Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest health problems of our time – some even speak of the silent pandemic,” Özdemir told lawmakers in the Bundestag in a debate on the bill last week, stressing that antibiotic use must be further reduced in order to continue to have effective medicines for humans and animals in the future.

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections killed more than 1.2 million people worldwide in 2019, a study published earlier this year has found.

This has likely been caused by the widespread use of antibiotics – both in human and veterinary medicine – which has led to some bacteria developing antimicrobial resistance (AMR), making antibiotics increasingly ineffective against infections.

The Commission’s recently set up European Health Union, which has made preparedness for health crises its key priority, has also named the antibiotic problem one of the bloc’s top three health threats.

Meanwhile, the EU’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork Strategy, has also set the goal of halving the sale of antibiotics for farm animals in the EU by 2030.

EU ambitions

The amendments also propose that comprehensive data on antibiotic use in farm animals be transmitted to the EU’s medicines agency, EMA. In this way, Germany would fulfil its obligations under the EU Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulation.

But environmentalists have warned that measures taken so far by the EU and the member states are insufficient to achieve this goal.

Meanwhile, an especially contentious measure debated at the EU level is the Commission’s list of antimicrobials to be reserved for human use only – not for veterinary medicine.

Both stakeholders and MEPs have sharply criticised antibiotics for which the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends reservation for human use.

Colistin in the spotlight

The drug Colistin, which is used to treat infections such as pneumonia, does not appear on the list as the Commission recommends other ways to reduce its use.

However, with its draft law, Germany’s agriculture ministry also wants to work towards reducing the use of so-called reserve antibiotics, i.e. critically important active substances such as Colistin.

“Antibiotics of critical importance must remain effective,” emphasised Özdemir.

Though the bill does not provide fixed targets for reduction, reserve antibiotics must be weighted particularly heavily in the reported data on antibiotic use as this ensure are “used as rarely as possible”, he added.

Mathias Pletz, Director of the Institute for Infectious Medicine and Hospital Hygiene at the University Hospital of Jena, welcomed the draft law during a Bundestag hearing on Monday (17 October), stating that it aims to reduce further the “mass use” of Colistin as well as other substances.

Animal health

However, the fight against antibiotic resistance involves a difficult balancing act.

While the field of animal husbandry is seen as one of the main areas where antibiotics use can be reduced, associations warn that using medication must remain possible where it is unavoidable for the health of the animals.

Attempts to reduce antibiotic use should not neglect “the preservation of animal health,” warned the German Farmers’ Association in a statement published Tuesday (18 October).

“A general reduction in the amount of antibiotics used” is “not to be equated” with the avoidance of antimicrobial resistance, the association continued.

Despite all efforts to reduce the use of antibiotics, “animal welfare demands that sick animals can continue to be treated”, Özdemir also told the Bundestag, warning, however, that the use of too many antibiotics in the stables is “always a sign that animals are obviously being kept incorrectly.”

Source: Euractiv.com