More control over the antibiotics in the Russian agricultural sector

“Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (FSVPS) has developed and sent to the Ministry of Agriculture a package of amendments to the law ‘On Veterinary Medicine’, which regulates the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry farming,” said Sergey Dankvert, the head of the department.

“It prohibits the use of antimicrobials for preventive purposes and as growth stimulants. Standards for prescription of antibiotics have been established. It is planned to introduce a whole article into the law regulating the manufacture of a feed with the addition of medicinal products,” specified the head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance.

According to the opinion of Sergei Dankvert, in addition to a strict control over the use of antibiotics in agriculture, Russia needs to address this issue at the level of the Eurasian Economic Union. “Today, there is a standard of mutual recognition of results of drug registration in the EEU countries and this means that despite all our efforts, any antibiotic made in China or, for example, in Africa and registered, for example, in Kazakhstan, can freely circulate in Russia,” said the head of the department.

He also points that, at the same time, the requirements and approaches to the expertise of the EEU member states are different. Unified rules of the circulation of medicines for veterinary use, which were developed by the previous composition of the Eurasian Economic Commission, have not been adopted and this is a way to get round the Russian legislation.

“Therefore, first of all, we would like to wish the new composition of the Eurasian Commission to quickly increase the list of antibiotics, as it is necessary to control the residual amount of antibiotics in animal products that get into the people’s food. Secondly, to create a unified electronic tracking system within the Eurasian Community. It is possible to use our Vesta information system,” specified the head of the FSVPS.