WRITTEN QUESTION E-2325/97 by Klaus Rehder (PSE) to the Commission (7 July 1997)

Subject: Antibiotics used in the fattening of livestock

In livestock fattening more and more feedingstuffs additives are being used which are intended to speed up the growth, and thus the finishing, of animals. An area of particular concern is the increasing use of antibiotics, which can lead to resistance in the various strains of bacteria and subsequently, via the food chain, to infection of humans with bacteria which are resistant to antibiotics. It is then no longer possible to treat these infections with antibiotics. According to a WHO report certain forms of pneumonia caused by Staphylococcus aureus can now be treated with only one antibiotic as this bacterium has become resistant to all other antibiotics. A study by the Paul Ehrlich Institute has found that bacterial resistance to antibiotics has increased dramatically. Scientific experts and institutes such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Infektologie, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie, the Bundestierärztekammer and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wissenschaftlichen Medizinischen Fachgesellschaften are alarmed at the findings, warning about foreseeable serious consequences for public health and calling for a general ban on antibiotics in the fattening of livestock. Such substances are also unnecessary where animals are reared in an appropriate manner.

1. Is the Commission aware of these reports and findings?

2. What conclusions does it draw from them? Is it considering a ban on antibiotics in livestock fattening?

3. Can it rule out risks to human health without a general ban on antibiotics in livestock fattening?

4. What discussions has the Commission's Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs held on the scientific findings outlined above and what was the outcome?

5. Does the composition of this committee offer a full guarantee that it makes its recommendations solely with a view to the common good and public health and does not make inappropriate compromises in the interests of the pharmaceuticals industry and the fattening industry?

6. In view of their great significance for public health, are the activities of this committee transparent, accessible to the general public and subject to scrutiny?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (16 September 1997)

1. and 2. The Commission is aware of the report of the World Health Organisation but it does not have the study by the Paul Ehrlich Institute to which the Honourable Member refers.

It is true that the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics has increased greatly in recent years. As the Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition pointed out in the report which the Commission asked it to prepare on the possible risk to humans from the use of avoparcin (opinion delivered on 21 May 1996) ((Point III.A (p. 3) of the Report of the Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition, which has been sent to Parliament. )): 'Among hospital physicians and microbiologists in particular, there has been a sharp increase in concern since 1988 over the increasing frequency with which Enterococcus spp. isolates from patients have been found to be resistant to the glycopeptide antibiotics vancomycin and teicoplanin.'

However, the Commission has so far no conclusive evidence that resistant bacteria of animal origin can be transferred to man or that the factors leading to their resistance can be transferred to human microflora in vivo.

The mechanisms which make microbes resistant to certain antibiotics are still very complex. Many hypotheses have been put forward and these have to be checked scientifically with the utmost care before a decision is taken on the future use of antibiotics as additives.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition ((Opinion of 21 May 1996, point III - G.3 p. 15. )), the Commission is establishing a surveillance programme of microbial resistance to antibiotics. The first phase of the programme, which will last for one year, should begin at the end of the year; it will consider the monitoring of antibiotics as additives. In the second phase, the Commission would like to extend this surveillance to the resistance of microbes to antibiotics used for therapeutic purposes.

The Commission is also considering whether to arrange studies or coordinate existing research in investigations which the Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition has identified as likely to explain the reasons why bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.

3. Even a total ban on the use of antibiotics in animal feedingstuffs would not eliminate the risk to human health since the substantial and recognised risk of resistance caused by the use of antibiotics in veterinary and human medicine would persist.

4. In addition to the World Health Organisation report, the Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition looked at all the scientific literature which the Commission could find on the resistance of microbes to antibiotics, a total of 159 publications which are listed in an Annex to the Committee's opinion of 21 May 1996.

As stated above, the Scientific Committee was unable to establish a risk from avoparcin because it could not establish a causal link between its use and the development of resistance in people.

5. The Commission has no reason to doubt the independence of the members of the Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition, and specifically those from the pharmaceutical industry and other professional circles. It should be noted that before it gave its opinion on avoparcin, the Scientific Committee held a consultative meeting of international experts at the highest level to hear their views on the question of resistance.

6. All the opinions of the Scientific Committee for Animal Nutrition have regularly been published since 1979 by the Publications Office. All the bibliography on which the opinions of the scientific committees are based is sent to those interested. After each meeting of the committee, a detailed summary record is distributed to the Member States and then made available on the Internet.