Veterindustria organised a workshop entitled ‘Nutritional supplements for companion and farm animals’, a technical conference held in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), the Government of Catalonia, the Valencian Regional Government and the Community of Madrid, which was attended by more than 90 experts and representatives from these institutions to exchange experiences, information and discuss the challenges facing the sector.
In his opening remarks at the workshop held yesterday at a hotel in Madrid, Santiago de Andrés, Director-General of Veterindustria, after welcoming the attendees, highlighted the leading role of the Spanish animal health and nutrition industry and emphasised the value of such events for professionals due to their eminently technical and practical nature.
For her part, Leonor Algarra, Deputy Director-General for Livestock Production Resources at MAPA, emphasised in her opening address the importance of such meetings and of the existing collaboration between the various administrations and operators when addressing these issues, which facilitates regulatory compliance and enables the animal feed sector to move forward.
The first part of the workshop was devoted to a series of presentations by representatives of MAPA, opened by Marta Pérez, Head of the Animal Feed Risk Assessment Service, who spoke on ‘Raw materials and additives in nutritional supplements: public consultation tools’, outlining the tools available to operators and authorities, after which Pablo Montañés, a veterinary technician from the health alert network, spoke on ‘Assessment of labelling claims: self-monitoring and official control tools’, highlighting the importance of controls in ensuring the accuracy of information provided to the end user.
Victoria Navas, Head of the Animal Feed Division, emphasised the PARNUTS regulations and the EFSA guidance, whilst also reviewing the latest legislative developments in the field of animal feed, in her presentation entitled ‘PARNUTS: regulations, necessary studies and EFSA guidance. Latest regulatory developments in animal feed’. The presentations by representatives of MAPA concluded with a talk by Juan José Ruiz, head of the Technical Service, on the ‘Animal Feed Alert Network: operation, results, self-monitoring and communication’, in which he explained how this alert network operates.
The series of presentations was brought to a close by Laura Vicente, coordinator of Veterindustria’s Nutritional Supplements Working Group, who spoke on ‘Veterindustria’s vision on nutritional supplements’, explaining the industry’s perspective on the development and regulation of these products.
The second part of the conference, moderated by Pablo Hervás, Technical and Public Affairs Director, was devoted to case studies on non-compliance detected during official controls, presented by Covadonga Sánchez, Head of Section and of the Animal Feed Control Programme for the Community of Madrid; Nieves Berná, Head of the Agricultural Production Safety and Control Section at the Valencian Regional Government; and Silvia Cazorla, veterinary technician at the Animal Feed and Livestock Production Safety Service of the Catalan Regional Government.
Through events such as this, Veterindustria reaffirms its commitment to technical training, regulatory improvement and institutional collaboration to boost the competitiveness of the Spanish animal health and nutrition industry.
