World meat industry news

The Russian government has supported a bill to tighten control over the use of antibiotics in agriculture. This is reported by the press service of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Victoria Abramchenko.

‘At the government meeting, a package of amendments to the law "On veterinary medicine" and "On the circulation of medicines", prepared by the Rosselkhoznadzor, was supported. The bill introduces a ban on the addition of antimicrobial drugs to feed without a prescription,’ the report says.

As explained in the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the bill will be sent to the State Duma in the near future.

‘The amendments are aimed at strengthening control over the use of antibacterial drugs in animal husbandry and poultry farming. According to expert estimates, uncontrolled use of antibiotics is one of the reasons for antibiotic resistance - the resistance of infectious agents to drugs. The bill introduces regulations on prescription drugs, which will reduce the cases of their unjustified use and improve the quality and safety of finished products,’ said Abramchenko, whose words are quoted in the message.

According to the bill, it is proposed to establish a ban on the addition of antimicrobial drugs to feed and the sale of such feeds in the absence of a requirement or prescription.

It is necessary to establish the categories of people who require a pharmaceutical license to add antimicrobial drugs to feed during their production and sale.

Registration of a prescription for a medicinal product for veterinary use will be possible in the federal state information system in the field of veterinary medicine.

The Rosselkhoznadzor is authorized to approve the list of medicines for veterinary use, including antimicrobial drugs dispensed according to prescriptions or requirements, the form of requirements, the procedure for their registration, accounting and storage.

The federal law will come into force on September 1, 2022. 

Expert opinion

‘There are studies by the World Health Organization, where they say that more than 70% of the antibiotics produced in the world are used primarily in animal husbandry. It is not necessarily the veterinary service that does this; most often farmers use such drugs when feeding animals in order to increase profitability. As soon as we begin to interfere in the world of bacteria in this way, the bacteria respond to us accordingly, very quickly. The development of new antibiotics takes years and millions of dollars, and bacteria need a few days or weeks to develop resistance mechanisms,’ says Alexey Ermakov, Head of the Department of Biology and General Pathology of the Don State Technical University, whose words are also quoted in the message.

‘The unconscious use of feed with antibacterial drugs is a serious problem. Control is of paramount importance here, but before taking action, we could first raise awareness among people and explain to them about the existence of such a problem. Also, this problem should be controlled at the legislative level, so the OIE has developed appropriate recommendations for countries that need to be included in national legislation so that no one can go and buy antibiotics without a doctor's recommendation - we need to change this routine practice for people in all countries,’ said Budimir Plavshich, Head of the Regional Representative Office of the International Epizootic Bureau for Europe in Moscow.