The treatment of antimicrobial resistance is a thorny issue that has drawn a lot of attention. In order to scientifically regulate and effectively control the application in antimicrobial drugs as well as ensure the sustainable development of farming industry and the animal food safety, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), from December 10th to 14th, 2018, convened the Sixth Session of Ad hoc Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TFAMR6) in Busan, Republic of Korea. Attendees of the session includes more than 250 representatives from 43 member-states, 1 member-organization (EU) and 12 international organizations, including the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) and the Office International des epizooties (OIE).
In accordance with the unified deployment of the Bureau of Quality and Safety Supervision for Agra-products of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOARA), 11 experts attended the session from the Agra-products Quality and Safety Center of MOARA, Huazhong Agricultural University, China Veterinary and Drug Inspection Institute, South China Agricultural University, National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center and Hong Kong Food & Environmental Hygiene Department. Professor Yuan Zonghui from HZAU was the head of the Chinese delegation while Professor Hao Haihong and Associate Professor Cheng Guyue were its secretaries. As the vice-chair country of TFAMR, China mainly focused on discussing and revising two international standards of antimicrobial resistance, Common Operating Procedures (COP) for Minimization and Control of Antimicrobial Resistance and Guidelines for Integrated Supervision (GLIS) over Food-borne Antimicrobial Resistance.
The session was presided over by Park Yong-ho, professor of veterinary medicine at Seoul University in South Korea and chairman of TFAMR. On behalf of the Korean government, Mr. Ryu Young-jin from Food and Drug Administration of Korean attended the opening ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. Dr. Jeffrey Lejeune, Director of Food Safety and Quality of FAO, Dr. Awa Aidara Kane from Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses of WHO, and Mr. Steve Wearne, Vice President of CAC, bid their speeches respectively.
The Chinese government attaches great importance to participating in the global management of antimicrobial resistance. In order to fully express the concern of Chinese Government, expand China’s rights to act in the revision of the international standards system and improve the quality of TFAMR session, Bureau of Quality and Safety Supervision for Agra-products of MOARA commissioned HZAU to hold two seminars on standard texts in Beijing, and later held another seminar on December 8, 2018 to unify the documentations and form a preliminary plan before flying to the session.
On December 9th, Professor Yuan Zonghui on his arrival in the Republic of Korea, participated in four pre-session meetings as head of the Chinese delegation and vice-chairman of two standards. These four pre-meetings included the Bureau meetings of COP and GLSI, and the coordination meetings of Asia and Asia-America. During the session, Chinese delegation actively exchanged ideals with American and other major delegations.
Hao Haihong and Cheng Guyue actively collected the opinions of the coordination meetings and the pre-session meetings of Chinese experts. Hao and Cheng quickly formed a written report of China, the CRD15 document, and promptly published it on the website of the TFAMR6, expressing the concerns of Chinese government. It had been highly valued by the CAC secretariat and adopted in many revision parts of the standard texts.
During the session, Secretary Hao Haihong, spokesman of Chinese delegation, upheld China’s position and spoke out the voice of China on key controversial issues in the two standard texts. With the support of the CAC secretariat and other representatives, China will continue to participate in the new round of revision of the COP and GLIS standards as the vice-chair country.
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2018/1218/53353.shtml
Translated by Wang Yining
Supervised by Xie Lujie
