Antibiotic Use in Animals - a Concern or a Risk?

“Antibiotic Use in Food Animals: A Dialogue for a Common Purpose”, a symposium organised by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture in Chicago last week, took a close look at how antibiotics are used in animal husbandry and its effects on human health.

TheMeatSite's Senior Editor Chris Wright, reporting from the seminar said that Dr Scott Hurd from Iowa State University set the stage by saying that the presence of a hazard creates concern, but concern is not risk. Human health risk requires sufficient exposure that will result in actual harm.

The National Meat Association in the US is challenging a law in California that requires slaughterhouses to remove and euthanise animals unable to walk.

The Supreme Court in Washington has decided plenty of cases concerning cruelty, inhumane treatment and executions but until now, none was about pigs.

The case of the 'nonambulatory pigs' involves a dispute between California and the pork industry over how to handle pigs unwilling or unable to walk when they arrive at a slaughterhouse.

The majority of EU countries are likely to miss the deadline to meet new pig welfare legislation, raising the spectre of illegally produced pork entering the UK, according to a report published by the British Pig Executive.

Legislation imposing a partial ban on the use of sow stalls in the rest of the EU comes into force in January 2013 – more than 10 years after the UK completely banned their use to raise animal welfare standards.

Few, if any, EU Member States will be fully-compliant with the legislation and it is acknowledged that a considerable proportion of pig producers in those countries have not yet moved to a welfare-friendly pig production system.

BPEX believes non-compliant, illegally produced pork will inevitably enter the UK if strong measures are not taken. It is calling for retailers and major foodservice companies to ensure all imports come from suppliers who produce to high welfare schemes such as Red Tractor or equivalent.