Veterinary medicinal products
The Royal Decree of 21 July 2016 modernises the legal framework and enables several administrative simplifications when using veterinary medicinal products. This Royal Decree also supports the policy to counter the antimicrobial resistance problem.
The legislation consists of 3 components:
- Recording of the use of veterinary medicinal products (both for the veterinarian and the farmer);
- Conditions regarding the use of critical important antibiotics;
- The central registration, in an official database (Sanitel-Med), of all antibiotic use in layers, broilers, veal calves and pigs to enable:
- In a general way: an objective quantification of the global use, for each species and for all antibiotics;
- In an individual way: the benchmarking of individual veterinarians and farmers.
The Belgian legislation on veterinary medicinal products complies with the EU-legislation on this matter:
- Council Directive 96/23/EC (art. 10) regarding residues
- Directive 2001/82/EC (art. 66 to 69) regarding veterinary medicinal products
- Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 (annex 1) regarding hygiene of foodstuffs
- Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 (annex 2) regarding hygiene rules for food of animal origin
Official control of residues
The results of the Belgian control programme for residues are published every year in an official summary report by EFSA (« Annual report of Veterinary Medicinal product residues ») and is available on the EFSA website.
The Belgian residue control programme fulfils the European requirements set by Council Directive 96/23/EC and Commission Decision 97/747/EC.
Every year the residue control programme of all Member States is assessed by the European Commission and approved by the Standing committee on Plant, Animals, Food and Feed (Section Toxicological safety of the Food chain).
The European legislation regarding residue control and additional information are publicly available on the website of DG SANTE.