Antibiotic use in the animal sector to be reduced permanently

For some time now, the Federal Government has set itself the goal of improving recording processes and reducing the use of antibiotics in agricultural operations – a newly adopted change to the Animal Medical Products Act will enforce this regulation with EU law in future. Accordingly, Member States are obligated to transmit comprehensive data to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) annually from 2024 onwards, documenting the use of antibiotics in livestock. Previously non-recorded, but still significant rearing operations (e.g. dairy cattle, breeding sows and laying hens) are also now to be recorded as part of the antibiotics minimisation concept.

The reporting obligation for antibiotics treatment should lie with veterinarians in future. In this case, the data is recorded independently of the use of the animals or size of the stock. Back in January 2022, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) published a situation report on antibiotics resistance in Germany in 2021, which showed that the total dispensation of animal medication with an antibacterial effect was greatly reduced from 2011 to 2021.

For us a further and important step towards more species-appropriate and natural rearing. After all, we believe that you can only expect the best meat from happy animals. Contact us and let our meat experts advise you.