China's Veterinary Drug Quality Improves Steadily, Special Sampling Inspections Added This Year
To ensure the safety of animal-derived food, the Ministry of Agriculture strictly regulates veterinary drug safety, continuously strengthens source control of veterinary drug residues in animal products, and through years of unremitting efforts, the pass rate of veterinary drug sampling inspections has steadily improved. In 2014, 15,125 batches of veterinary drugs were sampled nationwide, with a pass rate of 95.3%, an increase of 2.1 percentage points over 2013.
In 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture will adhere to combining guidance and restriction, continue to innovate the veterinary drug quality supervision and sampling inspection system, and strengthen supervision through "one tightening and one loosening." "One tightening" means vigorously cracking down on the illegal addition of substances to veterinary drugs, implementing identification sampling and baseline sampling systems; "one loosening" means loosening restrictions on veterinary drug manufacturers with reliable quality, implementing a system of central sampling inspections without repeated local sampling inspections.
At the start of the new year, the Ministry of Agriculture made veterinary drug quality supervision and sampling inspections the opening strategy for veterinary drug safety supervision work, issuing the "2015 Veterinary Drug Quality Supervision and Sampling Inspection Plan," highlighting three features in sampling inspections: First, deepening identification testing to severely crack down on illegal addition violations. It has successively formulated and issued the "Supplementary Inspection Methods for National Veterinary Drug Standards" for 18 drugs including illegally added antibacterial drugs, antipyretic and analgesic drugs, and antiviral drugs, and researched and determined 3 general methods for determining illegally added drugs detected in veterinary drugs. Products suspected of containing illegally added drugs during sampling or testing are listed for identification testing, and test results serve as the basis for administrative penalties. Second, implementing baseline sampling inspections to strictly control the risk of illegal addition to veterinary drugs. For the first time, special sampling inspections are arranged to systematically and comprehensively monitor the risk of illegal addition to veterinary drugs in the distribution and use stages, so as to truly reflect the quality status of veterinary drugs and accurately analyze the sources of veterinary drug quality and safety risks. Third, implementing differentiated sampling inspections to incentivize veterinary drug companies to pay more attention to quality control. This year, for the first time, it is stipulated that for veterinary drug manufacturers whose products have been sampled frequently in the past three years, whose product sampling pass rate is high (above 98%), and which have no circumstances subject to heavier penalties for veterinary drugs (Ministry of Agriculture Announcement No. 2071), central sampling inspections shall apply without repeated local sampling inspections, avoiding excessive sampling inspections of large-scale, highly reputable veterinary drug manufacturers with guaranteed quality.
Next, the Ministry of Agriculture will resolutely implement the deployment requirements proposed in this year's Government Work Report to "comprehensively address the problem of pesticide and veterinary drug residues and comprehensively improve the quality of agricultural products and food safety levels," supervise all localities in solidly advancing veterinary drug product quality sampling inspection work, promptly grasp the status of veterinary drug quality risks, promptly issue veterinary drug quality bulletins, and promptly adjust regulatory measures, ensuring the quality and safety of veterinary drugs and animal-derived food.