Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 1 May 2001

Vol. 535 No. 1

Written Answers - Antibiotic Resistance.

John Bruton

Ceist:

290 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children if studies have been carried out regarding the build-up of antibiotic resistance in humans through the consumption of imported poultry products in which antibiotics have been used for growth promotion; and if he will outline the system of EU inspection of poultry production systems in non-EU countries to give Irish consumers assurance on this point. [11515/01]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Dr. Moffatt)

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland – FSAI – was formally established as an independent statutory body on 1 January 1999 under the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act, 1998. The FSAI is a scientific agency whose function is to ensure that food produced, marketed or distributed within the State meets the highest standards of food safety and hygiene.

According to the FSAI, pathogenic micro-organisms exhibiting multi-drug antibiotic resistance have been responsible for outbreaks of food poisoning in humans. However, the link between these multi-drug resistant pathogens and imported foodstuffs has not been made. At the end of 1999 the FSAI, together with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, started an enhanced poultry monitoring programme. The purpose of this programme, which was funded by the FSAI, was to monitor the quality and safety of poultry products circulating on the Irish market, and included a study of the incidence of antibiotic resistant campylobacter and salmonella in poultry meat both domestically produced and imported.

This study was carried out in 2000, and approximately 3,000 samples of raw poultry meat and 700 samples of cooked products were examined. The results have not been collated but will be published within the next few months. In an extension to this project in 2001 the FSAI is funding further work with the isolates of campylobacter from last year's surveillance work. This exercise will involve genetically mapping the organisms isolated and comparing them to genetic maps of organisms that have been involved in human food poisoning outbreaks and also organisms that have been isolated from animal sources. This work may go some way to examining the link between foodstuffs and antibiotic resistant pathogens in humans.

Furthermore, at the request of my Department, the National Disease Surveillance Centre has submitted a report making recommendations on the control of antimicrobial resistance in Ireland. The recommendations set out in the report are currently being examined with a view to implementation of same at health board level. In fulfilment of the European Commission's commitment to ensuring that the highest levels of health protection are offered to the European consumer, the Commission established the Food and Veterinary Office – FVO – in the directorate-general for consumer policy and consumer health protection in April 1997.

The principal mission of the FVO is to monitor and control how member states and third countries implement EU legislation on food safety, animal health, plant health and animal welfare, and to contribute towards the maintenance of confidence in the safety of food offered to the European consumer. The FVO fulfils this mission by carrying out a programme of inspections to monitor the performance of competent authorities, including audits and on-the-spot inspections of individual establishments in both member states and third countries. The FVO aims to ensure that imports into the EU are safe and produced under conditions at least equivalent to those in the EU. Directives and regulations set the standards to be met by animal products originating in the EU and also set down equivalent standards for imports.

Strict rules governing the importation of animal products have been put in place at EU level, specifically for imports of poultry products from outside the EU. Countries wishing to export poultry products to the European Union are first required to demonstrate they have, and can maintain, safety standards at least equivalent to those applicable in the EU. In particular, the country of origin and establishment in which the poultry meat was produced must be approved in advance by the European Commission. Normally a country will only be included after the FVO has carried out an initial inspection of the control systems in the applicant country and has recommended that it be included on a list of approved countries.

When a country has been included on an approved list it must provide a list of all establishments in that country that have been approved as meeting the required standards set down for export to the EU. It must present annual plans which demonstrate the official measures in place to detect levels of chemical residues, including antibiotics. The granting of approvals is dependent on such factors as the poultry health status of the country, adequacy of veterinary structures, facilities of the production establishment and employment of good hygiene practices. The rules governing the importation of food of animal origin into the European Union require that such imports must come through designated border inspection posts – BIPs – authorised and equipped to carry out specified checks and controls.

On arrival in the EU, third country poultry meat is subjected to an official inspection at the first port of arrival. This includes checks on accompanying documents, on identity and labelling, as well as random physical checks on the product itself. If these checks indicate that everything is in order, importation is authorised and thereafter the poultry meat may circulate freely in the EU. Imports cannot be specifically targeted for monitoring in Ireland, because as a member of the European Union we are obliged under European legislation to allow free circulation of legally imported goods.