Animal health law is of ‘great importance’ for public health

by WORLD ORGANISATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH (OIE)

Around 70 per cent of communicable diseases are shared between animals and humans, explains rapporteur Marit Paulsen.

She kicks off the cover feature of the parliament magazine on animal health by calling the European commission's proposal a law of "great importance" for public health. As parliament's rapporteur on the EU's new animal health legislation, the ALDE deputy warns that "70 per cent of our infectious diseases are common for animals and humans", and cites Salmonella as a prime example, able to spread from pigs and dogs to humans "at great cost for national healthcare systems".

Paola Testori Coggi, director general of DG Sanco, stresses that new animal health rules should be "simple and smart" and that, together with commission proposals which aim to "optimise the single market" for medicines, can help to foster a more "competitive farming sector".

Read more