Prevention and monitoring: tasks of the federal states in Germany.

Antimicrobial drugs in livestock farming are not used for therapeutic purposes, only, but also to conceal deficiencies in animal husbandry and management. Use of antibiotic drugs should be restricted by specific regulations, since some veterinarians seem to have an interest in increasing their income by treatment of diseases instead of performing health management. The above-mentioned requirements have been fulfilled by section 56 a (2) of German Pharmaceuticals Act, which regulates the usage and dispensary of pharmaceuticals according to the current standards of veterinary science. These current standards of veterinary science are described by common scientific positions and specific opinions of certain relevant committees. There is no single institutional committee available at present. Therefore, members of the German Federal Chamber of Veterinarians and members of the Committees of the German Federal States, which are responsible for the compliance with regulations and acts, defined a common position on current standards of veterinary science, concerning correct treatment with antibiotic drugs within a Working Group of the Federal States for Veterinary Pharmaceuticals (former ArgeVet, now AG TAM), the so-called "antibiotic guidelines". These antibiotic guidelines should help veterinary practitioners to use and prescribe those substances only, which are accurate for treatment of the diagnosed disease concerning the used class of antibiotic, amount, and duration of usage. The responsible authorities have to proof the prudent and proper use of antibiotic drugs in the range of their surveillance. The surveillance by the authorities is complicated, since the burden of proof of improper usage of antimicrobial drugs lies within the responsibility of the authorities. Prevention can primarily be conducted by informing the responsible veterinarians of the proper forms of treatment and by strict regulations for registration of pharmacologically active substances. Every additional label use and the usage of existing old registrations may undermine the surveillance of improper usage of pharmacologically active substances in livestock animals. The responsible authorities of the German Federal States, which may vary in their organization among the states, have to administrate the following duties: (1) Surveillance of manufacture and distribution of pharmaceuticals. (2) Inspection and control of proper usage of pharmaceuticals. Thus, the surveillance of distribution of veterinary pharmaceuticals has a broader range of requirements in comparison to surveillance of human pharmaceuticals. It is necessary to record and to control the amount of used drugs as well as their ways of distribution to perform a sufficient surveillance. The legal authorization was created by the 11th Amendment of the German Pharmaceuticals Act, but these specifications are still too imprecise to support the surveillance in the current process. Hence, the actual surveillance process is more focussed on usage and dispensary of pharmaceuticals and less focussed on manufacture and distribution. Therefore, the current surveillance with the aim to limit unnecessary usage of pharmacologically active substances according to the current legislation is limited. It is necessary to change legislation with regard to control of distribution of pharmaceuticals as well as integration of self-control of livestock owners for a sustainable increase of efficacy.