Greens urge ban on antibiotics as growth aids in animal foods

The Green Party has called for a ban on antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feeds. This follows evidence of increasing resistance to antibiotics in animals and humans, which is impairing effective treatment of infection.

The Government should introduce a ban and campaign for EU-wide restrictions, said Mr John Gormley TD. Eight antibiotics are permitted for use in feeds at levels considerably below the therapeutic doses used when infection arises.

Described as "antimicrobials", they are contributing to increased resistance despite being administered at lower doses, according to the Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna. "Most people are aware that antibiotics are being used to treat sick animals. What very few are aware of is that antibiotics are also being used as growth promoters in animals to compensate for the unhealthy conditions they are forced to live in and to increase profits."

As a consequence of less strict authorisations, the antibiotics were ending up in the food, she claimed. While there was a serious problem of inappropriate and over-prescribing of drugs by doctors to humans, the problem of animal growth antibiotics was even more insidious, given the consequences for public health, Ms McKenna told a press conference.

With less strict controls, it was extremely difficult to establish the extent of their use in this form throughout Irish agriculture, she said. It had been established that "more than half the antibiotics in the EU end up in animal feedstuffs, mostly as growth promoters".

The extent to which salmonella strains resistant to as many as seven antibiotics had caused food-poisoning outbreaks in Ireland this summer indicated the extent of the problem, she said. "Nobody died, but they were lucky. Reputable national and international public health authorities have issued urgent warnings. But there is no evidence our Government is taking these on board."