When a natural disaster strikes it invariably affects animals and their owners. Veterinary services need to be prepared for such events as they will be expected to react to any situation which impacts on animals and their owners. There is no specific EU legal obligation for veterinary services to have specific plans to deal with the effects of natural disasters on animal health and welfare. Nor are there any guidance documents from the European Commission. This report describes the outcome of a questionnaire to all the veterinary services in the EU, together with more detailed studies of the extensive rescue and support systems in France and Italy. The results show that the levels of preparedness vary among the Member States. The veterinary services in six (30%) of the twenty responding countries are well-prepared through training and exercises, have access to specific disaster plans, and have tested their systems for dealing with animals under difficult conditions in real natural disaster scenarios. At the other end of the scale, seven (35%) of the veterinary services would rely solely on their procedures for dealing with serious animal diseases, which might not be suitable in a natural disaster. The good practices, similarities and differences presented in this report should be considered by animal owners, stakeholders, veterinarians and authorities so that they can better prepare for the sometimes devastating effects of natural disasters such as forest fires, floods and earthquakes. The Commission organises a workshop in Ireland in December 2018 where representatives from all Member States are invited to discuss the report and exchange “lessons learned” from their own experiences. Click on the Read More... link below to find out about the Veterinary Preparedness for Natural Disasters.
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The European Commission is organising a two day meeting, sharing valuable insights from top EU experts on progress with rearing pigs with intact tails and thus improving their welfare. The meeting is aimed at industry stakeholders, the authorities of EU Member States, researchers, and NGOs. The presentations and discussions for this event will focus on the actions EU Member States and the pig sector have taken to improve welfare standards on pig farms - which should lead to better conditions, suitable for phasing out tail-docking of pigs. You are invited to participate on-line in the webcast of the meeting, which will take place at the Commission's Health and food audit and analysis Directorate in Ireland. To follow the webcast, just click on the 'Read more...' link below:
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The report gives an overview of the state of play with relevant controls both for Member States and the EU Commission during 2014-2016. It concludes that Member States national authorities demonstrated in their annual reports on official controls that they continue to fulfil their important role under the food and feed law. The report highlights further that initiatives aimed at improving effectiveness of official controls and enforcement, ranging from service reorganisation to improved use of IT tools, are particularly encouraging and are proving essential in meeting the challenge of finding efficiencies in public spending. The report is based on an analysis of the Commission controls included in the staff working document accompanying this report.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a serious threat to human and animal health and a significant social and economic burden, both in the EU and globally. The European Commission sent a questionnaire to non-EU countries concerning their national policies and measures to address AMR. The responses received have been analysed in an anonymised way in this report, which presents an interesting overview of measures taken around the world to address the important challenge posed by AMR, both in human and veterinary medicine. This action is in line with the EU One Health Action Plan against AMR, which aims for stronger cooperation with international organisations and countries worldwide.
A new Commission overview report provides a better understanding of the commercial rabbit farming sector in the European Union. The actual size of rabbit farming in the EU is just over a third of previously available figures and it is highly concentrated in Spain, France and Italy. The report outlines the factors that contribute to the animal welfare of rabbits at the time of production and their impact in the different production systems. It concludes that the rabbit farming sector is broadly in line with existing EU legislative requirements regarding protection of rabbits at the time of production. The report follows the European Parliament report on "Minimum standards for the protection of farmed rabbits" which called upon the EU Commission to draw a roadmap towards minimum standards for the protection of farmed rabbits
A new Commission report presents an overview of the efforts being made in the EU to tackle issues relating to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animals. It illustrates the benefits of taking a holistic approach to animal health to help prevent infections complimented by a range of measures to ensure antimicrobials are chosen and used prudently when necessary. Where applied, these have helped to reduce significantly the use of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine without adversely affecting welfare or productivity issues. Encouragingly, there are signs that these approaches can lead to reduced levels of AMR. The report highlights potential examples of good practice and some challenges which may be useful to other countries in developing and implementing their policies for the prudent use of antimicrobials in animals.
A new Commission report about the 2016-2017 EU surveys for potato bacteria showes a continued reduction of ring rot in the EU. Only seven Member States were affected, the lowest number since 2001, and the incidence in seed potatoes has decreased by approximately 15% compared to 2015. For potato brown rot, the overall incidence of the disease in the EU remains very low with a further reduction in the 2016-2017 season. However, the disease re-appeared in seed potatoes in two Member States after a couple of years' absence from the EU seed potato sector. Both ring rot and brown rot remain plant health priorities in the EU with almost 100,000 potato samples analysed for each disease every year. Continuous control efforts by affected Member States are necessary for the ultimate eradication of these diseases.
A new Commission report finds improved notification practices by Member States (MS) about the presence of organisms harmful to plants, detected on their territories. The number of these notifications has increased by 42% between 2014 and 2016. The report finds further that the format and content of MS notifications improved in response to new EU legal requirements introduced in 2014. This positive trend is expected to continue due to the launch of a new protocol and the web-based notification system EUROPHYT-Outbreaks at the start of 2017. Organisms harmful to plants like certain insects, mites, bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites can cause serious phytosanitary risks. Early and comprehensive notifications of outbreaks support timely decision making at EU level and increase the level of protection against phytosanitary risks of the EU territory. The Commission uses the notification data to take action via the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed and/or to carry out audits to MS, assessing if control systems are effective in eradicating or avoiding the spread of the harmful organisms.
A new Commission report outlines how private certification schemes in the feed sector, are used by competent authorities in Member States, when planning and implementing official controls. It found that in four Member States there were well-developed interactions with private certification schemes, resulting in a reduction of official controls for feed business operators who are members of recognised private certification schemes. It further highlights potential benefits of, as well as challenges to, the interactions between official feed control systems and private certification schemes. The report is based on the outcome of study visits to three Member States, a survey and a workshop with Member States during 2015 and 2016.