One of the European Commission’s priorities for animal husbandry and breeding is a 50% reduction in the use of antibiotics for animals. The Polish ministry has not adopted such a high threshold and announces a 10% reduction in antibiotics by 2030.
Farmers unanimously stress, however, that, first, the problem of excessive antibiotic use does not exist, and second, the main focus should be on addressing the problems. They also see little point in further training campaigns on the administration of antibiotics to animals, because, as they stress, it is not done by them, but by a doctor who sees the need.
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There is no need to train us, only the ministers and the prime minister
If you want to train, not us. I would very much ask to train the Minister of Finance, I do not want to offend, and the Prime Minister, let this money for prevention finally flow, then there will be no need for antibiotic treatment. After all, we take blood from animals for diseases that are being eradicated by the government.
We only need to take a centimeter more blood to test for other diseases. They don’t do this we won’t reduce diseases, because we are often not aware that we have a carrier in the barn. This should be solved top-down. Prevention will allow us to reduce antibiotics,” said Zdzislaw Luba of the Podlasie Chamber of Agriculture.
A lot of frustration is also caused by the lack of equality in the market that farmers face every day. The issue is the import of meat from outside the Union – from Ukraine, or Mercosur countries.
The European Union has banned the use of growth promoters, growth hormones, since 2006, which is unfortunately the case in other countries with which the European Union wants to sign trade agreements, including Mercosur. The latest information is that Brazil has halted heifer beef exports to the European Union, due to the fact that they are unable to prove that certain growth hormones are not used in their production, said Jacek Zarzecki of the Polish Sustainable Beef Platform. – Every farmer knows very well that the higher the animal welfare, the lower the need to use antibiotics. Antibiotics are a last resort, they are not meant to prevent, but to cure. Prevention is very important, and this prevention is used on Polish farms,” Zarzecki stresses.
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EC wants to limit antibiotics for animals. What does the ministry say about it?
Breeders Are Victims of a Solicitation?
Breeders unanimously stress that they feel they are victims of a solicitation and do not like the narrative in the public sphere. They point out that saying that farmers are stuffing animals with antibiotics is simply untrue and highly damaging.
I’m irritated as a breeder by the reprimand that we farmers pack animals with antibiotics. We use antibiotics to treat our animals,” stresses Konrad Krupinski, a breeder from Podlasie. – As a father of four children, I have never encountered a doctor who performed an antibiogram, assigning an antibiotic to my children. In contrast, every veterinarian, when applying whether drugs, antibiotics for mastitis or other diseases, does an antibiogram. So let’s change direction and not say that farmers are the ones who are stuffing their animals with antibiotics. We treat them, we help them, that’s the truth,” he added.
As Krupinski stressed, the huge problem is not the use of antibiotics, but the passivity of Polish authorities in preventing them.
If we are talking about farmers using antibiotics, and that this is a problem, then perhaps it is the ineptitude of the Polish government, which for so many years has been unable to introduce ex officio eradication of IBR and BVD in herds,” the farmer exasperated. – In fact, we are one big breeding ground for pathogens, for which farmers with doctors have to use drugs to keep these animals, and thus maintain production. Without production there is no profit, no farm profitability. Perhaps it would be worth generating funds so that eventually IBR and BVD would be a disease to be eradicated from the farm? If we’re talking about antibiotics, maybe this committee would focus on stopping the Mercosur contract, because there goes goods that contain antibiotics that have been withdrawn from us for 20, 30 years! What are we talking about? Are we saying that Polish farmers are poisoning animals with antibiotics? These are fairy tales!
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