LEGISLATIVE ACT: Commission Regulation 1091/2005/EC implementing Regulation 2160/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards requirements for the use of specific control methods in the framework of the national programmes for the control of salmonella.
CONTENT: Under Regulation 2160/2003/EC, it may be decided that specific control methods are not to be used as part of national control programmes established by Member States to achieve the Community targets set up in accordance with that Regulation. Also, under Regulation 2160/2003/EC it may be decided that specific control methods may or shall be applied for the reduction of prevalence of zoonoses and zoonotic agents at the stage of the primary production of animals and other stages in the food chain, and rules may be adopted concerning the conditions for the use of such methods.
The Commission consulted EFSA on the use of antimicrobials and on the use of vaccines for the control of salmonella in poultry. Following that request, EFSA issued two separate opinions on those issues on 21 October 2004. In its opinion on the use of antimicrobials for the control of salmonella in poultry, EFSA recommended that the use of antimicrobials should be discouraged due to public health risks associated with development, selection and spread of resistance. The use of antimicrobials should be subject to formally defined conditions that would ensure protection of public health, and must be fully justified in advance and recorded by the competent authority.
As regards breeding flocks, while the opinion acknowledged the potential risk of dissemination of residual Salmonella spp., including dissemination of any selected resistant strains through the production pyramid, it recognised that valuable genetic material may be salvaged from infected breeding flocks through the use of antimicrobials. The opinion concluded also that most generally and for all types of poultry, on the rare occasions when Salmonella spp. causes clinical infections, antimicrobials may be useful in reducing morbidity and mortality.
This Commission Regulation thus lays down that antimicrobials shall not be used as a specific method to control salmonella in breeding flocks of Gallus gallus in the framework of national control programmes adopted pursuant to Article 6 of Regulation 2160/2003/EC, except in the following exceptional circumstances:
- animals presenting salmonella infection with clinical signs in a way likely to cause undue suffering to the animals; the infected breeding flocks treated with antimicrobials shall still be considered infected with salmonella, and appropriate measures shall be taken to reduce as much as possible the risk of spreading salmonella through the rest of the breeding pyramid;
- salvaging of valuable genetic material, including ‘elite flocks’, flocks from endangered breeds, and flocks kept for research purposes, in order to establish new salmonella-free flocks; chicks born from hatching eggs collected from treated animals shall be subject to fortnightly sampling during the rearing phase, with a scheme aiming to detect 1 % prevalence of relevant salmonella with a 95 % confidence limit;
- authorisation given by the competent authority on a case by case basis for purposes other than salmonella control in a flock suspect of salmonella infection, in particular following detection of salmonella at the hatchery or at the holding; however, Member States may decide to allow treatment without prior authorisation in emergency situations, subject to reporting the treatment immediately to the competent authority.
The use of antimicrobials shall be subject to authorization and supervision of the competent authority and shall be based wherever possible on the results of bacteriological sampling and of susceptibility testing.
Live salmonella vaccines for which the manufacturer does not provide an appropriate method to distinguish bacteriologically wild-type strains of salmonella from vaccine strains shall not be used in the framework of national control programmes adopted pursuant to Article 6 of Regulation 2160/2003/EC.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 02/08/2005.
DATE OF APPLICATION: 01/01/2007.