Written answers
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Pigmeat Sector
Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1067. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide all antibiotic usage data in relation to pig farms in Ireland, broken down by farming system, for example intensive indoor pig farms, organic outdoor, from January 2020 - January 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13185/24]
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Currently, in accordance with the Veterinary Medicinal Products legislation, in particular Article 108, the antibiotic usage records for all types of pig farms in Ireland are kept by the keeper/owner.
My Department operates a national Antimicrobial Usage Database which collects antibiotic usage data only from commercial pig farms; this data is provided on a voluntary confidential basis. This data is anonymised and aggregated for high level analysis to determine annual usage at a national level. The analysis shows that since January 2020, the annual antibiotic usage levels across these pig has been 118mg/kg in 2020, 81mg/kg in 2021, 64mg/kg in 2022 and 74mg/kg in 2023.
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