Danish Pig Vets Issue Antibiotic Guidelines
DENMARK - The Danish food and agriculture ministry will soon be issuing new guidelines for acceptable levels of antibiotic use on Denmark's pig units.Health experts are concerned that over-use of antibiotics will lead to increased resistance in pigs, as well as in humans who eat pork containing antibiotic residues.
The agriculture ministry will introduce a yellow card warning system for vets and farmers who are giving too many antibiotics to pigs.
Farmers and vets given the warning will have nine months to take corrective measures.
If the measures taken are inadequate, the violators will be fined, investigators will conduct a thorough control check at the pig units involved, and the government's own correctional plan will be put in place for the violators to follow.
Henrik Høegh, food and agriculture minister, has a list of vets who prescribed the most antibiotics per pig from June 2008 to June 2009.
The names at the top of the list had already been summoned by the Veterinary and Food Administration back in 2005 for prescribing excessive amounts of antibiotics, which totalled 33 per cent of all those prescribed nationwide.
However, the goal of the agency's contact at the time was to reduce the use of one specific type of antibiotic as opposed to cutting down on the total amount.