madam president i would like to thank the chair of the committee on agriculture and rural development for bringing this issue up
i share his concerns at the level of antibiotic resistance being found in bacterial infections of livestock
i agree with him that there should be growing concern that there is evidence of overspill to the human population where we are finding that the efficacy of many once-reliable antibiotics has declined significantly thereby putting human health at risk
so i support the intent of the debate
i also agree that the important first step must be to work closely with the various agencies and the pharmaceutical industry in order to monitor and assess the problem
i want to state however that contrary to popular opinion this is not exclusively a problem brought about by intensive agriculture
the random use of antibiotics in agriculture is or has been common to all farming be it large or small
indeed i would go further and say that large-scale producers today are usually vertically integrated under contractual terms with the processing sector and that the prophylactic use of antibiotics is usually prohibited or restricted under quality assurance schemes
however it is clear that there must be some measure of control and i look forward to hearing details of the commissioner's strategy in due course
there are three points that i want to make
firstly any measures taken must be based on sound scientific evidence secondly they must be proportionate and thirdly they should not place a further burden of regulation and thereby cost on the agricultural and veterinary industries
