EU Commission Finally Wakes Up to Antibiotic Threat from Brazilian Beef Production
IFA President Francie Gorman said the announcement today by the EU Commission that Brazilian meat imports will be banned from September 3rd, unless it demonstrates compliance with the bloc’s rules on antimicrobial resistance is an important first step.
“The commission is finally taking the Antibiotic/Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) threat posed by Brazilian beef production somewhat seriously. This follows IFA/IFJ investigation of the unregulated use of all levels of antibiotics in the Brazil late last year,” he said.
He said IFA and the IFJ in November last year travelled 3,000km across four states in Brazil investigating the controls and usage of antibiotics on beef farms.
“IFA made a detailed submission on our findings (See Report Here) to EU institutions and it is only now they are being taken seriously,” he said.
“The findings were startling. We were able to purchase any amount of any type of antibiotics we wanted without so much as being asked for our names, the animal type or symptoms to be treated, a prescription, or even a farm identifier.”
“In a significant number of the outlets, there wasn’t even an inventory check with antibiotics sold to us across the counter for cash without scanning or recording the sale,” he added.
The IFA President said the EU Commission until now ignored our findings in their rush to sell out Irish and EU farmers for big industry in the Mercosur trade deal. Today’s announcement must now be backed up by meaningful actions.
“The Brazilian authorities do not have a good track record of compliance with EU auditors and trade requirements as evidenced by the finding of the DG Sante inspections. There can be no fudging of this issue by the Commission; there can be no short cuts taken with an issue this serious for human and animal health,” Francie Gorman added.
“The starting point has to be a comprehensive database of all bovine animals in the country to allow prescribing of antibiotics for farm animals and the infrastructure must then be built around that to incorporate prescribing, dispensing and treatment records similar to what we have in this country.”
The IFA President said it will take years for these systems to be developed and put in place.
“Until this happens, not one ounce of Brazilian beef should be allowed enter the EU if the Commission are serious about AMR and if today’s announcement is to have any credibility,” he concluded.
