Dubai: New laws to regulate animal feed and pet food imports to the country are on the anvil, officials said on Wednesday.
These will include new tests and health certificates to ensure the safety of such products that directly affect the health of livestock and poultry and indirectly affect human beings who consume the products of these animals.
Federal and local authorities are currently drafting regulations to control the animal feed and pet food sector in view of the increase in the volume of these products imported to the country, said Mubarak Al Suwaidi, head of the veterinary quarantine unit of Dubai Municipality.
He was speaking to Gulf News after delivering a presentation on laws and legislations on animal feed.
The official said that there was a 220 per cent increase in pet food imports and 13 per cent increase in animal feed imports in 2015 compared with 2014 figures. In 2015, 212,686 tonnes of animal feed and 11,596 tonnes of pet food were imported to Dubai.
There are around 300,000 livestock — cattle, camels and sheep — and 50,000 poultry animals in farms and pens in the emirate.
Considering the increase in the number of pets and livestock population and the volume of feed imported for them, there is a need to focus on regulating the sector in a better way, said Al Suwaidi.
“We are now working with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment to draft new rules. New requirements for tests, health certificates and some new fees have been proposed,” he said.
Fatima Al Zary, head of veterinary laboratory with Dubai Municipality, said new tests will check the levels of antibiotics and heavy metal content in animal feed.
“We do basic tests at our vet lab in Al Khawaneej. We have been focusing on aflatoxin [a type of carcinogenic mould]. We want to introduce new tests for checking other harmful components in animal feed such as antibiotics and heavy metals,” she said.
Five samples of animal feed were rejected due to high levels of aflatoxin in 2015.
Currently, officials rely on the health certificates produced by importers for verifying other hazardous contents.
Al Zary said a state-of- the-art laboratory is being built in Jebel Ali to conduct such advanced tests. “We are planning to introduce these new tests from next year because if there is anything harmful in the animal feed, it will go into their products and it will affect the health of the people who consume these products such as milk and meat.”
Al Suwaidi said the municipality is also piloting a project in which farm animals in Dubai are to be tagged and micro-chipped.
“We will be launching an epidemic map of Dubai for zoonotic diseases in farm animals. This will record the movement of farm animals with the use of RFID technology and any case of infection or food poisoning reported will be mapped in different zones with colour coding. This will help take immediate measures when there is any outbreak of a disease among the animals in any zone.”
Facts and figures
300,000 livestock and 50,000 poultry in farms and pens in Dubai
In 2015, 212,686 tonnes of animal feed and 11,596 tonnes of pet food were imported to the emirate
New tests proposed to check levels of antiobiotics, heavy metals, etc, in animal feed and pet food
