SUGGESTIONS that Irish pork generally has high levels of antibiotic residue are unfounded according to a veterinary expert from the North. There is evidence, however, that testing of pigs should be increased to ensure certainty of detection and to deter producers who abuse drugs Dr John McCaughey said at a research meeting in UCD.
Selecting only one pig per producer in testing procedures would not identify all potential violations, he told the annual Agricultural Research Forum. The tracking of offenders needed to involve "subjecting them to regular, sustained testing" until their produce was proved to be clear.
The Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland, where he is based, had introduced a testing regime in 1988 based on the belief that all pigs from the same supplier were equally likely to contain residues, and that penalties imposed by condemnation of carcasses without compensation, based on violative residues, would be sufficient to effect control.
That approach had worked but improvements "plateaued" in recent years, underlining the need for more extensive testing.
The pig industry was worth £233 million to Ireland during 1995, according to Dr Brendan Lynch of Teagasc's research centre in Moorepark, Co Cork. It had unjustifiably earned "an image of being associated with pollution, objectionable odours, inhumane treatment of animals and feeding of antibiotics, hormones and other undesirable substances which remain as residues in meat".
The sector was matching the highest international standards but he accepted the need for a code of practice to "formalise the best practices already in use by most producers".
