News

Two young children have died after accidentally swallowing a rat poison banned in France. ANSES wishes to warn consumers of the danger of these products and to reiterate its recommendations for avoiding accidents.

Foreign bodies, particularly metal objects, are sometimes accidentally mixed with cattle feed. Ingestion of metal objects can cause damage to internal organs, which can lead to death in the worst cases. Following a request from the association Robin des Bois, ANSES has just published an expert appraisal report to determine the extent of the problem. This report recommends preventive measures to reduce the risk of metal fragment ingestion by cows and suggests that magnets can be administered as an effective method for avoiding injury.

How can distributors guarantee the safety of products sold to consumers in bulk? Can all products be sold this way? With bulk selling becoming increasingly popular, driven by social demand as well as by the legislator through the French AGEC Act, ANSES has been asked by the Directorate General for fair Trading, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) to give its opinion regarding products that may not be sold in this way for public health reasons. To continue to effectively protect consumer health, it is important for distributors to apply appropriate procedures to bulk selling.

European Antibiotic Awareness Day is taking place on 18 November 2021. For this occasion, ANSES is publishing the results of several monitoring programmes that it carries out to prevent the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in farm and domestic animals in France. Below is a review of some key findings with Jean-Yves Madec, Scientific Director for antimicrobial resistance and Head of the French surveillance network for antimicrobial resistance in pathogenic bacteria of animal origin (RESAPATH), Gérard Moulin, Deputy Director of the French Agency for Veterinary Medicinal Products (ANMV), and Agnès Perrin-Guyomard, Deputy Head of the National Reference Laboratory for antimicrobial resistance.