The level of drug residues found in beef in the past year is expected to be significantly lower than 2001 levels, according to early indications from the Department of Agriculture. The final figures will not be available until next spring.
Last year 0.58 per cent of suspect meat samples tested positive for drug residues. These come from legal or illegal medicines, as well as environmental contaminants.
The preliminary data were welcomed by the Animal and Plant Health Association, an umbrella group for the animal medicine industry.
Mr Declan O'Brien, the APHA director, said the figures were evidence of a positive trend of reduced levels of antibiotic residues in beef.
"If you are farming, and if you are messing around, then you stand a very good chance of being caught," he said. Most of the drug residues detected in 2001 came from prescription-only antibiotics.
APHA said the main reason for this was that farmers were not adhering to the "withdrawal period", where an animal should not be slaughtered for a certain period after receiving medication.
Mr O'Brien said manufacturers spent about €125 million on developing every new product, so it was not in their interests to see products used incorrectly. He called for "draconian penalties" for people who deliberately misused animal remedies.
In the past six years, 213 people have been convicted of offences under animal remedies legislation. Some 67 have been jailed, while fines totalling almost €870,000 were imposed. Last year three people were jailed for offences relating to the use of banned substances or infringements relating to veterinary medicines.
Mr Philip Kirwan, of the Department of Agriculture, said the level of drug residues found in food-producing animals had been at a consistently low level in recent years. "We would obviously prefer to see no residues at all," he said.
The Department's residue monitoring plan tested 67,000 samples from 11 food-producing species last year. The highest number of positives (353) came from pigs, followed by cattle, sheep and poultry.
