France: for the sake of a sensible use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine

On the occasion of a conference with the title "Evaluation of the use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine and its reduction," Stéphane Le Foll, French Minister of Agriculture, presented the guidelines of his Ministry with respect to the sensible use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine.

The Minister announced some guidelines within the context of the Ecoantiobio 2017 plan:

• Regulate the prescription of antibiotics that are important in human medicine (antibiotics that are called critical) and forbid their use as preventatives in the stockbreeding sector with the aim of preserving their efficacy;
• Give a "public resource" status to the antibiotics in order to make possible special measures for fighting against the resistances to antibiotics;
• Promote new handling methods and practices in the farms based on a reinforced prevention that allow the limitation in the use of antibiotics;
• Reflect on the reform of the taxation of the drugs used in veterinary medicine in order to promote their sensible use and to contribute to the financing of the Ecoantibio plan;
• Reflect on the commercial practices, so the prescriptions of antibiotics are not connected to market incentives.