THE Department of Agriculture has moved to reassure consumers on the safety of pork, following an EU wide survey which found antibiotic levels in Irish pork to be the highest in Europe.
Nearly one in five samples tested carried unacceptably high antibiotic residues this contamination being twice as high as the next worst offender, according to a study carried out by the Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI). The samples were purchased last March and April in 17 different locations across the State.
"These findings only corroborate what we have discovered ourselves, and we are satisfied that adequate controls are in place," a Department of Agriculture spokesman responded yesterday. The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) said, however, that the levels of residue were "totally unacceptable".
Some IS European consumers' associations were commissioned to carry out the survey, which also tested for drug levels in beef, chicken and turkey. A total of 300 meat samples were taken from 14 EU countries.
No breaches were found in samples of beef, chicken and turkey purchased in the Republic, but 17 of 100 samples of Irish pork tested were found to have residue levels above the maximum limit set by the European Commission. The testing was carried out at a European reference laboratory in Ghent.
The survey will not be published in Brussels until January. But the CAI's findings in Ireland were given to the Department of Agriculture yesterday and its report will be published in a forthcoming issue of Consumer Choice magazine.
The 17 positive cases were purchased by the CAI in Athlone, Bray, Co Wicklow, Carlow, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Roscrea, Waterford and five Co Dublin outlets, according to its chief executive, Ms Caroline Gill.
The excess limits were not quantified; but of the 17 cases, 11 were subjected to a further random test and shown to carry tetracyclines, indicating a broad spectrum of antibiotics, according to Ms Jean Cahill, senior researcher with the CAI.
Overuse and abuse of such drugs for animal illness leads to the development of resistance to some antibiotics in humans, a trend which has been described as "worrying" by Dr Edmund Smyth, a consultant microbiologist at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. Evidence of contamination in pork appears to coincide with a significant rise in resistance to antibiotics among patients in hospitals here.
Such residues can often show up when the regulatory withdrawal period after applying antibiotics is not observed, but the Department of Agriculture is satisfied that its control system is effective. An investigation carried out by the Department in 1995 has resulted in measures which require farmers to keep more detailed records of drug use, a spokesman stressed.
"We don't have results for 1996, but we are confident that the situation has improved vastly," the spokesman said. "While there are over 100,000 beef producers, the pigmeat industry involves only 800 to 1,000 producers, and there is a panoply of legislation in place on misuse of drugs."
The permanent presence of vets at the dozen pigmeat factories in the State ensured that abuses were quickly identified, he added.
The chairman of the IFA's pigs committee, Mr Liam Ryan, said yesterday that the residue identification was unacceptable and had to be eliminated as quickly as possible. The IFA would co operate with the official agencies to achieve this objective, he said.
"It is imperative that all pig producers observe the required withdrawal period in the use of permitted antibiotics, so as to avoid the possibility of residues," Mr Ryan said in a statement.
"A residue of nil has to be the objective of all producers, and the IFA supports whatever sanctions or penalties that may be necessary to bring this about."
The Ballyglass Environmental Action Group (BEAG) in Co Longford said the CAI survey of pork highlighted the need to look at the whole pig industry. There was something seriously wrong with an industry that could attract an 150 9002 quality mark, while also putting consumers at risk, Mr Joe Murray of BEAG said last night.
