Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20502, if she will make it her policy to update the Veterinary Medicine Regulations and the Summary of Product Characteristics of antibiotic products in order to end the preventative administration of antibiotics where no disease has been diagnosed in any of the animals in the group being to treated.

George Eustice

The Government will consider the need to revise the Veterinary Medicines regulation after the conclusion of the current review of the EU legislative framework on veterinary medicines and medicated feedingstuffs.

In the meantime the Government has reissued guidance on the responsible use of animal medicines on the farm to emphasise that we do not support the routine preventative use of antibiotics, or the use of antibiotics to compensate for poor animal husbandry.

In the UK, antibiotic veterinary medicines are only available through a prescription from a veterinary surgeon, who in turn can only prescribe to animals under their care following a clinical assessment. Using antibiotics responsibly is a requirement of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Code of Professional Conduct for Vets.