MRSA bacteria on broiler farms

In Britain, we don't know. Britain's  hopelessly corrupt government veterinarians will not tell us anything. and our hospitals remain in danger.

It is called open government and transparency, and supported by a vast Defra, Britain's agricultural ministry, PR machine to the greater glory of Britain's greedy veterinarians at our expense.

Worldwide, we know that pigs, poultry, pig and poultry people and veterinarians are carrying MRSA, but for Britain, we do not know.

This story went from the Netherlands to China and from there to NZ. clearly moving from west to east and running out of steam before East Anglia, where it really matters.

Dutch government report here (mechanical transaltion)


MRSA bacteria on broiler farms

Newsflash Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority | November
29, 2012

The methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is found in 8% of the farms with broilers. The bacterium occurs in chickens and barn dust. This research shows that agency Risk Assessment & Research
program (office) of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (nVWA) had carried out. It mainly concerns the 'veegerelateerde' variant of MRSA, called LA-MRSA, which also previously been detected in pigs and veal calves. Animals infected with MRSA may in some cases transfer to humans.

Gasverdoving

Of the broiler farmers is 9% carrier of MRSA. For slaughterhouse staff of broilers can be up to 14%. According Buro Additional measures are needed to professionals who come into contact with live chickens, better protection. In slaughterhouses with gasverdoving is the probability of a MRSA infection is almost 4 times smaller than with electric stunning of slaughter through a "water bath". Gasverdoving to move the animals namely less. There are less dust particles in the air, so the risk of infection with the bacterium is smaller. Since, moreover, less discomfort for the animals, pleads buro sure to switch to a slaughter method in which the animals move as little as possible.

Büro advises employees who are exposed to additional MRSA to wear a mask for better protection against dust.

Hospital admission

The health risk due to an MRSA infection for healthy people low. For people in ziekenhjuizen this is a greater risk because they are more susceptible to infection. MRSA infections are difficult to treat because the bacteria is insensitive to penicillin and many other antibiotics.

People with an increased risk of being a carrier of MRSA bacteria are considered at risk. The risk groups include people who are located in a foreign hospital or treated, and people who have had close contact with live pigs or calves. Prevent the spread of MRSA in a hospital counter, these risk at admission special treatment. Bureau advises people who intensively with live chickens have been in contact now at risk to count.

Agency Risk Assessment & Research programming nVWA judges and advises scientifically about potential threats to food and product safety, animal health and welfare. The independent exercise of this contract is regulated by the Law independent risk VWA in 2006 by the parliament adopted. Advice in the context of the law to the Ministers of the Ministries of Economic Affairs (EZ) and the Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS).

More information: - Advice on health risks of LA-MRSA in intensive contact with chickens - File MRSA

Pig MRSA in people increasing in Denmark.

Hard information from  the Danish Statens Serum Institute.

Set the gold standard for reporting, don't they?

Not that we have to worry about this in Britain.

Defra, Britain agricultural ministry, almost alone in Western Europe, has told us that MRSA is not present in British pigs and veterinarians confirmed this as recently as last week.

MRSA in Denmark still increasing and exposure to pigs a major factor

Be sure to access the url to see how reporting is done in a country  not being misled by a dodgy veterinary public relations barrage.

Full report with tables here


EPI-NEWS
About diseases and vaccines
No 47 - 2012
MRSA 2011

Once again, the number of new MRSA cases (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) increased in 2011. A total of 1,293 cases were recorded versus 1,097 cases in 2010, EPI-NEWS 46/11, corresponding to an 18% increase, Figure 1.

The majority of the MRSA cases were acquired in Denmark; infection acquired abroad was stated in 253 cases (20%). The median age was 52 years (range 0-95) for hospital acquired cases and 32 years (0-97 for community acquired cases.


Epidemiological classification

Epidemiological classification of notified MRSA cases based on presumed mode of acquisition assessed on the basis of epidemiological and microbiological information is presented in Table 1.


A total of 751 cases (58%) had community-acquired MRSA and no known contact to hospitals or nursing homes. Among these, 453 cases (60%) had been exposed to MRSA, primarily from a family member (65%) followed by exposure from pigs directly or indirectly (CC398, 33%, see below), Table 1.

Clinical infection was the cause of sampling in 681 (53%) cases. As presented in Figure 2, the number of hospital acquired infections continued to be very low in line with the previous years (32), whereas the number of community-acquired cases increased. The number of community-acquired cases in which there was known contact to a hospital or nursing home within the previous 12 months was at par with the number recorded in 2010. In 111 cases of community-acquired infection with clinical infection, there was a known exposure to MRSA (primarily a family member followed by contact to pigs). ...


...The 1,293 isolates represented 193 spa types from 17 different clonal complexes (CC groups). The two primary groups, CC8 (n = 270) and CC5 (n = 194) comprised 36% of the isolates and represented 27 and 30 different spa types, respectively. The ten most frequent spa types comprised 57% of the isolates; among these the two most frequently observed types were t034 (n = 130; CC398) and t008 (n = 122; CC5). For further details, please see the 2011 DANMAP report, www.danmap.org.

Resistance to erythromycin and clindamycin decreased with respect to 2010 levels, whereas the remaining resistance pattern mainly remained in line with that observed in 2010.
MRSA CC398

2011 saw a marked increase in the number of persons infected with MRSA CC398, which is closely associated with pigs (164 cases, versus 109 in 2010). In 24 cases, the affected persons had neither had direct contact with pigs, nor had anyone in their household.
mecC-MRSA...


21 November 2012

Breaking: Pork contaminated with Yersinia - USA

This story is just breaking all over the USA.

We don't, officially, know the situation in the UK.

Maff-Defra won't tell us and their corrupt veterinary civil service arm intimidates whistle-blowers, witnesses to Parliament and to OLAF, the serious fraud squad of the European Union.

Not any more we suspect.

The writer has this touching faith in freedom, decency, England, democracy and the rule of law which we suspect is about to be proved right in the, admittedly slow and disastrous,  long run.

The story is becoming available from many sources in the USA. For those unfamiliar with the term it is worth looking up Yersinia, although the antibiotic resistance may be more important.

Full article in the Food Poisoning Bulletin here



Consumers Reports Study Finds Pork Contaminated with Yersinia

November 27, 2012 By Linda Larsen

A new study conducted by Consumer Reports has found that 69% of ground pork and pork chops for sale in the United States was contaminated with Yersinia enterocolitica, a pathogenic bacteria. Furthermore, some of the bacteria was antibiotic-resistant to multiple drugs or entire classes of drugs used to treat humans, posing a great threat to public health...

Livestock Antibiotics - French Guidelines

You can see why the British vetocracy are now in panic mode. This is a mechanical translation of the proposals from the French Agricultural Minister to control antibiotic use.

Britain's veterinarians not only have very sick pigs, and massive secret antibiotic usage, to continue to hide up from the general public, but they also have the French preaching veterinary heresy.

Who would want to be a Maff-Defra veterinarian?

The idea of taxing livestock antibiotics would not work. Taxation would merely encourage smuggling.

Antibiotics are smuggled into Britain currently, to take advantage of relatively minor price differences and even some British veterinarians were found to be buying them to increase their margins. Taxation, unless it was uniform throughout the EU and other source countries, would merely increase the incentives for smuggling and anyway there would doubtless also be illegal leakage from non-taxed human antibiotic sources.

So the main thrust would be external regulation of the veterinary industry.

If the British veterinary industry had nothing to hide on animal health and antibiotic usage, they would have nothing to worry about.

Full press release here


Stéphane LE FOLL makes targeted use of antibiotics and responsible veterinary public health priority
Paris

14/11/2012

On the occasion of a conference he organized titled "Evaluating the
use of veterinary antibiotics and reduce" Stéphane LE FOLL, Minister
of Agriculture, Food and Forestry presented its guidelines for
responsible use of targeted antibiotics in veterinary medicine

He announced the following guidelines in the plan Ecoantibio 2017:
 
Regulate the prescription of antibiotics with a major interest in
human medicine(antibiotics called critical) and prohibit their use as
a preventive measure in the agricultural sector to maintain their
effectiveness;

  Give a status of "public good" to antibiotics in order to make
possible special measures to fight against antibiotic resistance;
 
Finally promote new methods and breeding practices based on
strengthening prevention and for limiting the use of antibiotics;
 
Reflect on the reform of the taxation of veterinary medicines, to
promote responsible use and contribute to the financing plan
Ecoantibio;

  Brainstorming on business practices that antibiotic prescriptions
are not linked to market incentives, leading to proposals for
legislation to be included in the law for the future of agriculture,
food and forestry ,

Stéphane LE FOLL said: "The more targeted use of antibiotics in
veterinary medicine is a priority for the health of all. It passes
through both regulatory changes and the dissemination of new
production models more environmentally and health. This objective
should be based on a strong commitment of the production chain,
reducing our dependence on antibiotics contributes to the health
performance of our productions. "

Momentum on livestock antibiotic resistance

Well, well, everything is now on the move. Incredibly slowly, but like an elephant, it will take some stopping.

The British veterinary establishment generally do not want change, but at least they now understand that change is going to be imposed on them.

As part of the reform process, they will need to offer some explanations for the discrepancies in the public record,

The problem is that they don't seem to like the changes the EU has in mind much.

Well, they wouldn't, would they?

Washed up Defra, Britain's infamous agricultural ministry, won't be able to protect them any longer and will merely paddle with the tide.

It's good to see the Chief Medical Officer's warning getting more publicity in veterinary publications.

World Veterinary Association report here

Momentum on resistance

THE level of interest in antimicrobial resistance generated by European Antibiotic Awareness Day, which is held each year on November 18, continues to grow...

...This year's event has again been accompanied by a flurry of activity, including a well-publicised warning from England's Chief Medical Officer that 'antibiotics are losing their effectiveness at a rate that is both alarming and irreversible - similar to global warming'.

The Department of Health, working with Defra and other government departments, is currently in the process of developing a new cross-governmental Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy and Action Plan, which it intends to publish sometime next year. Meanwhile, attention continues to focus on veterinary use of antimicrobials, as various developments have illustrated.

26 Nov 2012

You can read more here

Veterinary antibiotic use down - Netherlands - France - Denmark

The Federation of Veterinarians of Europe must be puzzled that they can't get any figures from Britain: a rare country that claims to have no MRSA in pigs and admits the lowest production of pig meat per sow in Western Europe. Production figures here.

We imagine the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe will get asked about that in due course.

Full media release here

From the FEDERATION OF VETERINARIANS OF EUROPE

European Antibiotic Awareness Day 2012
Antibiotic resistance:

"Vets are part of the solution"
Bruxelles, 21 November 2012 -

Antibiotic resistance is a true 'One Health' issue, and veterinarians are part of the solution as gatekeepers of antimicrobial use in animals,  said Dr Christophe Buhot, president of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe  (FVE).

…When asked to comment on the resolution on antimicrobial resistance that had been recently adopted by the European Parliament's ENVI committee, and in particular on the suggestion 'to separate the right to prescribe from the right to sell antimicrobials in order to eradicate economic incentives to prescribe', Dr Buhot said: "Antimicrobial resistance is a complex issue for which there is no simple, one-sizefits-all solution such as 'decoupling' of prescription and dispensing, but which requires rigorous action from all players and at multiple levels. In the Netherlands,  where there is no 'decoupling', veterinarians have greatly contributed to decrease  the antibiotic consumption by over 50% over the past 3 years, and also in France a  reduction of 30% is realised."

In other countries, such as Denmark, the compulsory monthly herd health visit by the veterinary practitioner had also contributed to a more responsible use.  "We fully agree with the vision of the EU upcoming Animal Health Law that prevention is better than cure, and such a preventive herd health scheme would certainly help to ensure a more responsible use of antibiotics. Veterinarians are part  of the solution to keep antibiotics effective."…

American Pork Producers Hit Out at Trade Bans

The American National Pork Producers are right in suggesting that meat exports are unlikely to be carry PRRS, part of the PRDC complex of diseases which include circovirus.

PRRS and associated disease probably do not travel in meat, still less to infect domestic livestock. The real cause has always been live movements, semen or embryos: germplasm.

The current obsession with the meat trade, as the culprit, started with the British circovirus, classical swine fever and, foot and mouth epidemics from 1999 to 2000.

The government veterinarians did not want to admit to allowing the import of infected live animals or germplasm (their responsibility) and decided to blame anything else they could invent, from the just possible to the completely ridiculous.

Imaginary illegally imported infected meat became an obsession wrongly transferring blame to British customs.  IIIIM, as a risk, pandered to the apparent interests of the British farmers who sought to restrict competition from meat imports. Half of the vets probably believed what they wanted to believe. Many made money from live imports, and exports especially of breeding stock.

Huge sums of taxpayer's money were used to bolster the fabrications and the veterinarians used seriously criminal activity to try to silence critics. Documents and tests were faked. Witnesses to Parliament and whistle-blowers were threatened.

Since, half the world misled by corruption in veterinary Britain, has slammed the wrong stable door, to the financial loss of many farmers with good safe produce.

It is in American commercial interests to demolish the British veterinary fabrications and doubtless the latest developments in DNA science will help trace the real routes of the "trade" in livestock diseases.

British veterinarians can expect a hostile investigation into past epidemics in Britain coming from the USA. The writer is delighted to help them. Animal epidemics, some with human health implications, are against all our interests.

The full report in the National Hog Farmer is here


NPPC Calls for Lifting of Unscientific Trade Barriers
Nov. 19, 2012 9:53am

Nick Giordano, vice president and counsel for International Affairs for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), recently traveled to Australia and New Zealand to meet with United States and foreign government officials and industry representatives to discuss restrictions on U.S. pork due to  unscientific concerns for the transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS)...

...The legal importation of fresh, chilled and frozen pork from PRRS-endemic countries never has resulted in any outbreak of PRRS in countries that are known to be PRRS-free.

NPPC said New Zealand and Australia should remove all PRRS-related restrictions for full and open access for U.S. pork and pork products as a part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

Europeans to blame for Porcine Circovirus in the USA?

American veterinarians are effectively blaming Europeans for Porcine Circovirus in the USA

Anyway, they say, correctly, that is was in Europe in the “late 1990s” 

It was in Britain, in Northern Ireland, Cornwall or East Anglia in 1998 or 1999. It may have been elsewhere. It certainly went everywhere else and is still a massive problem.

Certainly, the only British testing station for live pigs, in Northern Ireland, was closed down because of circovirus contamination, but live exports of pigs from Britain continued unhindered.

Much contemporaneous information on the origins of Porcine Circovirus in Britain has been preserved  and is now only available on the newsgroup, uk.business.agriculture. Much has been removed from the WWW.

This will become the biggest scandal of the 21^st century so far, with links to many other animal epidemics and the rise of antibiotic resistance. It also seems to be the key to the massive 2001 British Foot and Mouth epidemic.

How the hell a scientifically illiterate retired ship-broker with a bad heart and pancreatic cancer (now in remission) got there first, years ago, needs investigation. Who was asleep?

That should not happen. That really should not happen. 

The full article from the American publication National Hog Farmer is here.

Circovirus Calls for Flexible Approach

As time passes, more farms are vaccinating mature sows for PCV2.

Nov. 15, 2012 1:02pm Reed Leiting, DVM Worthington, MN

In the late 1990s, European animal health officials identified a condition in swine that caused a chronic wasting syndrome in nursery pigs. However, not until the mid-2000s did a syndrome become recognized in the United States that included high mortality and morbidity in late nursery to finishing swine.

The syndrome was originally coined postweaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome (PMWS).  It was thought to be caused by everything from mycotoxins to virus. Later, it was learned the cause was porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2).

Early on, PCV2 commonly produced 20-40% pig mortality. The pigs that survived performed very well despite the lack of commercial vaccines...

"Use Antibiotics Responsibly" - National Farmers Union.

The NFU statement is more interesting than it appears. For once, the law in Britain is clearly stated:

"All antibiotics for use in food-producing animals must be prescribed by a vet to animals under his or her care following a clinical assessment, and are supplied by a vet or pharmacist in accordance with the prescription."

Veterinarians have a monopoly on the use of livestock antibiotics in the United Kingdom.

So, there is no argument for blaming anyone other than the veterinarians for wild over-prescription in the pig industry and elsewhere or resulting antibiotic resistance spreading to humans.

Even some smuggling of antibiotics into the UK, merely an "increase the margins" operation, uncovered was mostly to supply veterinarians to their greater profit.

Veterinary "Blame someone else, preferably innocent" extends to blaming farmers for something they can do nothing about.

Farmers have vets on the left, vets on the right, vets blocking the way ahead and blocking any retreat: vets plundering a whole livestock industry.

Vets decide who will be prosecuted for cruelty and who will be excused. They decide who will be prosecuted for not calling a vet or not taking their advice.

The government veterinarians protect a corrupt veterinary industry, able to threaten witnesses to Parliament and OLAF - the serious fraud squad of the European Union, and get away with it.

Britain's corrupt veterinarians run Britain's livestock industries for their profit and in the process endanger the health of British people even those abroad.

Britain is the world's first, only and undoubtedly last vetocracy.

That the NFU, and the NPA spin-off make and publicise a clear statement like this is a sign of the times. We are nearing the end of an era, and the young vets know there is no future for the existing veterinary regime.

Now, they just need courage, or perhaps fear of just what the world is going to do to Britain's veterinarians when they find out just what has been going on here for the past decade and more.

I'm watching America stirring over porcine circovirus, with hints that they got the disease from Europe perhaps Britain. I'm watching the British vets starting to come clean about circovirus.

The British veterinarians won't fancy facing American justice.

Pig Disease with a Capital P.

So, we get yet another new set of initials starting with "P."

But this is right. Although they may not have the exact details worked out, or collectively show any preparedness to be fully open or make a widespread admission of the connections between the various pig diseases, this is serious progress in the United States.

The British veterinary industry are still at the stage of not being prepared to face the implications that Porcine Circovirus hits the immune system and opens the door to other viral and bacterial infections: the human health implications being serious.

Circovirus is the driving force (originally under so-called the PMWS - PDNS manifestations) behind excessive antibiotic usage and opened the door to Classical Swine Fever and, Foot and Mouth in 2000 in Britain.

It did not cause either of those outbreaks, that was almost certainly recklessly imported germplasm, but resulting PCV impeded the early detection of imported disease until it was too late to snuff out the initial outbreak.

The rest is history.

The first mistake was importing PCV2, otherwise porcine circovirus, into Britain in 1998-1999 and hiding up the resulting epidemic.

The state veterinary crime wave that followed was the desperate culprits trying to avoid owning up. They finished up being reported to the serious crime squad of the EU - OLAF. Not that the EU did anything constructive, something that will come as no surprise to disease battered Britain.

The government veterinarians were already in trouble over Mad Cow - BSE, and awaiting the Phillips Inquiry report.

They knew they could not survive another scandal, certainly not one that cost billions, caused massive livestock culls, the deployment of the British Army into the countryside of Britain and delayed a general election.

With that background, it is not surprising that the writer, as a dangerous witness to Parliament, was subjected to abuse, defamation, threats, harassment and stalking: disgraceful but not really surprising.

In a minor way, it continues to this day and can be followed by those with a strong stomach on the newsgroup, uk.business.agriculture. That can be reached via Google Groups here.

The fascinating American Pork Network article can be read in full here

6 steps for a PRDC checkup

Marlys Miller, Editor, Pork Magazine   |   Updated: November 15, 2012

...For pigs, this means that porcine respiratory disease complex
(PRDC) can become more of a challenge.

As identified by its name, PRDC is driven by more than one pathogen or disease. Mary Battrell, DVM, with Murphy-Brown points out that some of the more common viral components of PRDC include porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRS), swine influenza virus (SIV), porcine cirovirus type 2 (PCV2), and porcine respiratory corona virus (PRCV). Certainly, PRRS, SIV, PCV2 are major players in the complex.

But, she points out that bacterial infections also can play a role, including Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, Pasteurella multocida, Streptococcus suis, Haemophilus parasuis, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Actinobacillus suis, and Salmonella choleraesuis. Bacterial infections alone are not that difficult to treat or even prevent, Battrell says, but when the pig faces a combination of pathogens and/or stressors PRDC can surface and cause problems...

Antibiotic use slashed in Netherlands

The Netherlands have again massively reduced their usage of antibiotics in livestock.

Highly detailed species specific figures, including some estimates, have again been published.

In Britain, we do not know what is used in pigs, for example: it is a state veterinary service secret.

It is safe to presume that they are not proud of their record, and that antibiotic use in British pigs is far too high and much higher than on the Continent.

Antibiotic resistance in people is still rising.

Here are the Dutch figures, highly detailed and with comparisons.

MARAN - Antibiotic usage

During the period 2009-2012 the total sales of antibiotics dropped by 51%, from 495 tonnes in 2009 to an estimated 244 tonnes in 2012 (FIDIN, 2012). This already exceeds the policy objective for 2013 set by the Dutch government, i.e., a 50% reduction in antibiotic use compared with 2009. Survey data on antibiotic use per animal species indicate a further decrease in all five livestock sectors examined in the first six months of 2012.

Government hid up tree disease for years.

If the Guardian are right,  it would seem that Britain and the world have been lied to once again by Britain's infamous agricultural ministry, Defra, who knew this tree disease was in Britain in 2009, but hid it up.

This obviously parallels the situation with Circovirus in 1999 and Foot and Mouth in 2000.

They had best own up to those deceptions as well, and deal with the associated criminal activity appropriately, as soon as possible.

It is going to be very unpleasant and upsetting, but it is best to get it over with as quickly as possible. Human lives may well have been lost and delays may cause more.

I am quite happy to make all my records available to a proper authorised police or parliamentary investigation and in my absence, all things taken into account, they can get help and copies from the USA.

The history making Guardian report was published this afternoon. There is the odd possible multiple interpretation, but the allegations seem clear enough.

Be sure to read the full report here

Ash dieback: government claimed its 'hands were tied' on import ban. 
Letters from 2009 obtained by FoE show government said it could not act on disease due to EU and WTO restraints

• John Vidal Environment editor
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 November 2012 15.28 GMT

More diseases on way

Well, that's a cheery headline!

It relates to animal diseases finding their way onto these islands

Britain's government veterinarians have now failed so often that they have now lost all confidence in doing their job of protecting Britain from "infection from abroad."

As Shakespeare had it "This fortress built by nature for herself. Against infection and the hand of war"

England loses its natural defences in a flood of veterinary corruption, incompetence and now helplessness.

That's what happens when you fail to identify and deal with the obvious cause, because it might upset your cronies.

International live movements of animals, and the dangers, are almost NEVER mentioned in veterinary sources and that's what gives the game away.

From Circovirus, Classical Swine Fever, through to Foot and Mouth and to more recent incursions some dangerous to humans, the possibility of live imports being responsible is ignored.

Infected live animals allowed into Britain would be the fault of the massive profitable veterinary industry. They mount a continuous PR campaign to make sure the general public never catch on to the risks and damage to animal and human health.

Anyway, if human travel by aeroplane is a cause of animal disease importation, the first people to be thrown out of the airports will have to be the veterinarians. They carry zoonotic (animal disease dangerous to humans) disease and they know it.

Wake up England!

Full Western Daily Press report here


More diseases on way

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Western Daily Press

Rising temperatures, the increased air transportation and more
tourists are likely to lead to another vector-borne disease entering
the UK in the next decade, experts have warned...

British Parliament to Debate Overuse of Antibiotics in Farming.

Antibiotic users do not want this discussed in Westminster, they want a voluntary deal done in private.

Parliament needs to get on with the doing the job of discussing the matter in public, so we know who voted against reform and who was missing from the chamber.

The motion even uses the term "superbugs" something popularised by Maryn McKenna in her book "Superbugs."

We need to take some lessons in democracy from Denmark: a country leaping ahead in antibiotic control and public health protection.

Fuller information, including the names of the sponsors is available from the House of Commons site here:

Early day motion 566

USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN INTENSIVE FARMING

2012-13

15.10.2012

That this House recognises that the overuse of antibiotics in intensive farming adds to the serious public health threat from antibiotic resistance and the rise of superbugs; welcomes the Government's efforts to reduce over-prescribing by doctors; calls for parallel action to reduce the use of antibiotics by veterinary surgeons and farmers; and further calls on the Government to take steps to ensure that the routine prophylactic use of antibiotics on UK farms is phased out and that specific controls are introduced on the use in livestock of antibiotics that are critically important in human medicine.

Danes Reduce Antibiotic Use in Livestock, Again!

The Danes continue to tighten their rules limiting the use of antibiotics in livestock, not least in their important pig industry.

There has been widespread political support for this move, as something that helps their important export trade.

In pigs, this  includes “treat the animal” instead of “treat the herd.” A practice that will further slash antibiotic use.

The Danes continue to increase their lead in developing husbandry systems that minimise antibiotic use and do not endanger public health.

The issues are publicly discussed and those abusing antibiotics are exposed and publicly named.

How different from secretive shameful Britain under the iron heel of its corrupt agricultural ministry, once MAFF (of Mad Cow fame), now DEFRA.

Details of Danish changes here

Broad political agreement on antibiotics

 2nd November 2012

Efforts on antibiotics strengthened in a number of areas in the new veterinary settlement to counter resistance.