QS-Report-Meat-and-Meat-Products-1-2019-complete-V2

QS-Report: Meat and Meat Products | Issue May 2019 QS-Report Meat and Meat Products The veterinarians and livestock owners in the QS scheme ap- ply antibiotics responsibly. This is confirmed by the current fig- ures from the QS antibiotics monitoring: the amount of an- tibiotics administered in pigs and poultry farms has further decreased for almost all groups of active substances and par- ticularly for critical antibiotics. Reviewing the last data obtained from the QS antibiotics monitoring, the total amount of antibiotics used in the 29,864 pig and 3,184 poultry QS farms is 4.8 percent lower than in the previous year, at close to 464 tonnes. The use of critical antibio- tics has also signi cantly decreased. This contrasts with the accusation expressed by some experts that vet- erinary medicine has switched from classical active ingredients with a larger volume to more modern, high- ly e ective and low-dose active in- gredients. Thomas May , responsible for the QS antibiotics monitoring, comments: “The current evaluation shows that the administration of so-called re- serve antibiotics in livestock farm- ing remains very cautious. While in 2017 still 0.4 tons of cephalo- sporins of the 3rd and 4th genera- tion were administered, the gure is now around 30 percent lower at 0.28 tonnes. The same applies for the consumption of fluoroquinolo- nes, which decreased almost 20 percent, going from 4.75 tons to 3.81 tonnes in 2018.” The QS Antibiotics Working Group is currently discussing the feasibility of collecting the data on antibiotics use in cattle. The Antibiotics Monitoring Coordination Commit- tee considers it would be meaningful to integrate the beef sector into the antibiotics monitoring of the QS scheme. The Federal Association of Practicing Veterinarians (Bun- desverband für praktizierende Tierärzte) points out that based on the German Medicines Act (Arzneimittelgesetz- es, AMG for its initials in German), an obligation to report the use of antibiotics in dairy farms could be possible. At present, the QS scheme is mandatory for the registra- tion of antibiotics in fattening calves; around 900 beef cattle farmers are already using the QS database out of their own interest to record and forward the information to the HIT database. The aim is to record all antibiotics in all cattle in a central database. The next step will be an exchange between experts from cattle farming and veteri- narians, to jointly develop a concept. Survey: Legal changes contributed to further sen- sitization in antibiotics’ use An evaluation of the reduction of antibiotics carried out on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, as part of the implementation of the 16th amendment to the German Medicines Act (AMG), reveals the measures that were preferentially imple- mented. Most veterinarians and livestock owners stated that the amendment had helped them to be- come more aware of the use of antibiotics. The most frequent measures mentioned were the increased use of vaccination, further optimisation of husban- dry conditions and the implementation of additional hygiene measures. The respondents were critical of the non-binding nature of the active days (duration of use), as well as the calculation of the therapy fre- quency and the associated regular obligation for 25 % of all farms to elaborate a plan of measures to reduce the use of antibiotics. QS antibiotics monitoring Antibiotics usage in pigs and poultry continues to decrease Participation in antibioticmonitoring becomesmore concrete for cattle farms while established itself very well on the market, Lidl is participat- ing in the joint development of the farming system labelling by the re- tail trade. This enables us to offer consumers more transparency and uniformity in the labelling of fresh meat,” explains Christof Mross , Managing Director Food Purchas- ing at Lidl Deutschland. “Since the farming system labelling alone does not raise animal wel- fare standards, we have already set ourselves concrete goals for a more animal welfare-oriented pro- duct range with the introduction of the Lidl farming system compass last year. In our stores, customers can already find every second meat product on level 2 “sty farming plus” or higher. In the long term, we plan to establish level 2 as the Lidl minimum standard for our freshmeat range,” Mross continues. ALLOCATION TO THE UNIFORM FARMING SYSTEM LABELLING The allocation to the levels 1 to 4 of the farming system labelling is carried out by the Gesellscha zur Förderung des Tierwohls in der Nutztierhaltung mbH (Society for the Promotion of Animal Welfare in Animal Husbandry mbH), which is also responsible for the Animal Welfare Initiative of the industry. This company publishes the requirement pro les for the stages and assigns individual programmes to the respective level of the farming system at the request of a participating food retailer. QS supports the ITW in the management of the business with the organisation of au- dits and data management.