IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 2
Alpharma respectively, sued Denmark and the EU, seeking a reversal of
the decision and asking for an immediate suspension of the regulation's
"operation." 128 On June 30, 1999, the President of the European Court of
First Instance found against the companies' request for immediate
suspension, because the companies had not shown that the ban on sales in
the European Union would cause them serious and irreparable damage,
and because "public health must take precedence over economic
considerations." 129 The question of the decision itself is pending.
Assessing the Impacts of a Ban on Subtherapeutic Antibiotic Use
To ease the transition to antibiotic restrictions, scientists have
recommended adoption of "better feeding practices and production
systems that promote animal health and welfare." 130 In Sweden, it was the
farmers, through their national organization, Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund
(LRF), who urged the government to ban the subtherapeutic use of
antibiotics in animal feeds. Then took action to maintain the confidence of
Swedish consumers in the safety of Swedish-produced meat, dairy, and
poultry products in response to the debate that was occurring in the 1980s
regarding antibiotic resistance. But, the immediate result was that many
piglet farmers incurred economic losses due to an increase of diarrhea in
weaned piglets. Because there was a law, however, they had to go
forward. In a 1992 interview, LRF economic policy advisor Gunnela
Ståhle stated: 131
Antibiotics are only allowed after prescription for
treatment of illness. And that is the first steptoward better
animal welfare. If you are not allowed to use antibiotics as
preventive measures, you must correct your environment ...
better housing, better environment, better management in
order to prevent disease.... When you don't consider
animal welfare you have to use antibiotics to cover the
problems.
In a 1992 interview, then Minister of Agriculture Karl-Erik Olsson
described the rationale behind the Swedish antibiotic law: 132
The idea is that we shall not use antibiotics in the feed to
prevent diseases or grow the animals faster. If there is
something wrong we can use it for the single animal. But if
you have the possibility to use antibiotics in the feed, you
can keep the animals in a worse situation, and this use of
antibiotics will hide the real problems. So when we cannot
use them, we will create a situation for the animal that is
natural and good.
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