Belgium
VLAM 
BELGIUM, Brussels. The three Belgian quality assurance systems Belpork (Certus pork meat), Belplume (poultry) and IKM Flanders (dairy cattle) have now established the non-profit organisation "AB Register vzw". The aim and purpose of the platform is to further advance the reduction of antibiotics in the three systems mentioned above.
In 2014, Belpork, the standard owner of the Belgian Certus test seal for pork, initiated the AB Register project to reduce the use of therapeutic antibiotics in livestock farming. Thanks to its close cooperation with the scientific unit AMCRA (AntiMicrobial Consumption and Reduction in the Animal Production), AB Register has made an important contribution in recent years to data collection, data control and methodology development for reporting to the pig farmer. In this way, significant steps have been taken to reduce the use of antibiotically active substances in pig farming as part of the 2020 AMCRA target. AMCRA's ten-point plan adopted in 2014 aims to halve the use of antibiotics in livestock farming by 2020 and to reduce critical major antibiotics by 75%.
In 2016, the starting signal was given for cross-sector cooperation in the AB Register between Belpork and Belplume. The poultry farmers were also integrated into the system in mid-2017. In the same year, the collaboration with the dairy industry (IKM Flanders) was sealed, which will then enter the system in the fall of 2018.
he establishment of the umbrella organisation AB Register vzw expands the cross-industry cooperation. The new platform bundles the data from farms, promotes antibiotic sensitisation and aims to reduce the number of therapeutics in livestock farming to a maximum by providing benchmark reports. At the same time, it also makes an important contribution to reducing the risk of developing resistance to antibiotics.
The coordinator of the AB Register vzw is the veterinary doctor Laurien Van Heupen. Yvan Dejaegher was appointed chairman.
Source: VLAM