The Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. said Wednesday it prefers the Department of Agriculture and attached agency the Bureau of Animal Industry to have jurisdiction over the registration, issuance of permits, inspection and testing of animal feeds and ingredients and veterinary drugs and medicine.
“The impasse on whether the Department of Health and its attached agency the Food and Drug Authority should take over these functions is of great concern to the feed milling industry as the standoff puts at risk the animal industry’s response to the Asian swine flu and Avian influenza that are threatening the country’s poultry and hog population,” said PAFMI president Nicole Sarmiento Garcia.
Garcia said the DA and BAI have been performing the functions of registering, testing, inspecting and issuing permits to the animal feeds industry and veterinary drugs and medicine and BAI’s staff of veterinarians and animal nutritionists are well-trained, equipped and with decades of experience in animal sciences and veterinary medicine.
“It is therefore just appropriate that they be given the authority to oversee these functions permanently,” said Garcia, who is also the executive vice president of Vitarich Corp.
Garcia said while the feeds and animal raising industries had the highest regard on the capability of the FDA in overseeing the food and health products industry, their expertise and training were on overseeing and ensuring the safety of food products, drugs, cosmetics and medicines for human consumption.
“FDA has no experience, expertise, training nor equipment for testing of products for animal consumption,” said Garcia.
She said it is best to let BAI’s veterinarians and animal nutritionists to have jurisdiction over products for the animal sector and FDA’s doctors and toxicologists and health experts to have control over products for human consumption.
“The whole country is facing the worst pandemic that we have ever seen, and we are hopeful that the government will finally be able to control the spread of coronavirus soon. The DOH and the FDA are at the forefront of this effort and to burden these agencies with the additional task of overseeing veterinary feeds and medicines would be putting more load on their shoulders and thus make their fight against Covid-19 even more difficult,” she said.
PAFMI said that as the jurisdictional impasse remained unresolved, the feed milling sector, veterinary medicine industry and the hog and poultry raisers groups were left in a quandary, not knowing which agency to approach for permits and other concerns.
It said delays in the release of imported veterinary drugs and feed ingredients may occur and lead to unnecessary costs due to the turf issue as the Bureau of Customs would require release documents from whichever agency that has the authority to do so.
“The feed milling industry thus reiterates and requests that this jurisdictional issue between DA and DOH be resolved soon in favor of the DA and its attached agency the BAI,” the industry group said.
PAFMI is the oldest and biggest association of animal feed producers in the country with 33 members, including San Miguel Corp., Universal Robina Corp., Pilmico Foods Corp., General Milling Corp. and Vitarich Corp.
PAFMI members produce about 70 percent of the country’s total animal feeds.
