Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 333: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the European Parliament's decision to ban the prophylactic use of antibiotics in livestock farming will affect the sale of dry cow and milking cow mastitis tubes here. [38847/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Resolution on antimicrobial resistance, adopted by the European Parliament on 27 October 2011, set out a broad range of recommended actions to be taken by the European Commission and other stakeholders to address the antimicrobial resistance threat. However, the Resolution is not a legally binding decision and, as such, does not have any practical effect on the current availability here of dry and milking cow mastitis tubes.

The European Commission also published an "Action Plan against the rising threats from Antimicrobial Resistance" on 15 November 2011. The Action Plan, which embraces both the human and animal health spheres and covers the next 5 years, sets down 12 concrete actions covering 7 areas where the Commission feels that measures are most necessary. It builds on a number of measures taken over the past number of years, including the initiative to ban, in 2005, the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in animals.

Both the Resolution and the Action Plan represent an important contribution to the ongoing debate on this issue which has significant public and animal health implications. While many of the details of the Action Plan have yet to be developed, it is already evident that all stakeholders, both in the human and animal health spheres, will have to play their part in addressing the issue of antimicrobial resistance and that much greater effort will be necessary to prevent and control the spread of disease, thereby reducing the need for recourse to antibiotic treatments.