Herbs prohibited or banned herbs?
April 30 this year, the Directive 2004/24/EC (THMPD) of the European Union has to be implemented in various countries of the European Union.
What does this mean in normal Dutch? At the end of the month, Member States should monitor compliance with a directive that is drafted and adopted in 2004 . It is a Directive about herbs.
Idea was then, that it was undesirable that there could be randomly said that certain herbs have medicinal properties without research . In itself, this whole idea is not absurd. On the other hand, there is a huge knowledge of herbs based on tradition and present publications including China from the time that we were still walking around in bear skins and had problems with building a fire in Europe.
Since the publication of the guideline they tried to get a number of herbal remedies registered. Across Europe a small 200 succeeded, but a 1000 applications are still waiting. This is for Europe as a whole. For the Netherlands only 4 are successfully adopted.
The Directive follows that it is forbidden to mention health claims on packaging of food, unless the product has been registered as a medicine. I heard of a company that one garlic product had to be removed from the market because on the package was said that since hundreds of years garlic has been known for its blood purifying properties. This is an example of such a health claim that has caused to remove a product from the market here.
Many companies are seeking appropriate formulations so that they do not break rules in that regard.
The European Food Safety Authority EFSA has to ensure that every one exercises the rules.
This caused some panic because it is not at all clear how compliance with the legislation is going to be completed. Indeed, there is only a limited number of products registered. Too little to existing needs. If products are required that aren't registered (yet), this can cause problems.
Questions on this matter asked to the European Commission were dismissed by saying that possible problems will be viewed when the law takes effect. The EFSA indeed recognizes that there are problems and it would fit in corporate governance as the entry into this legislation would be delayed until a satisfactory solution for these big problems would be found.
In formulating the legislation, the definition of 'medicine' is so well established that the use of plants and herbs after April 30, 2011 can be labeled as the use of (not registered) medicines with all kind of consequences.
The fact is that the government on May 1 2011 has the possibilitity to prohibit the use of herbs in food supplements .
They can use al list prepared by the EFSA, known as the Toolset. The list contains about 1200 plants which may have a toxic side. But if one knows that on this list are plants such as potato and basil........ .
How does it develop? Given the controls that already occurred during the pigeons scholarships in recent months by the various regulatory authorities this seems a legitimate question.
Do we go to a development that in addition to the prohibition on health claims on packaging, as they recently have been made, a ban on the use of herbs in food will be included? Will it be forbidden to composite herbal products to prepare and deliver them?
In short will the herbs be placed in the dock, where the use of it will be labeled as criminal unless it is as a medicinal herbal registered product?
If the problems concerning this matter not be fully resolved, it could be to that citizens (and / or their animals) in Europe dont have the freedom of choice to choose the medicine (herbs instead of drugs) that are required for themselves.
That one could deprive me this choice weighs more heavily with me than the fact that I mandatory have to take a part of my Bony products from the market.If I would be sick I want to be able to opt for an alternative treatment .
As if thousands of years traditional Chinese herbal medicine, for one example, with a stroke could be dismissed as an infantile medicine.
Maybe signing the petition at http://www.savenaturalhealth.eu is not so bad after all.
I thank the NVF
Peter Boskamp
New vaccine
Last year I wrote about the herpesvirus. I mentioned that this virus also could be sometimes responsible for large losses of young birds into the racing season, after unloading and sometimes even if the pigeons were trained close to home. The stories were numerous about this, both in Belgium and the Netherlands last year.
Unfortunately I have already seen the first cases of youngsters with obvious clinical signs by an infection with the herpesvirus this year.Several youngsters died . Since 2005
we see a marked increase with symptoms of the pigeon herpesvirus in the clinic . Also striking is that the losses among the youngsters grow every year since then.
If youngsters of lofts in which the herpesvirus is found are basketed it almost always involves large losses.
The tragedy is that these pigeons are basketted round and shiny and the owner can be even convinced that his pigeons on the flight will go to perform.Nothing is less true when it appears that 25-35% of the youngsters can not and will not ever come home again.
In recent years I've seen fanciers that against the advice basketed youngsters in the week after, and then were disappointed because of the sluggishness of the youngsters. This way fanciers often lose
all the yougsters.. Clinically, we often see nothing except for red throats during inspection. But in throat swabs are often large numbers of inflammatory cells. Section often confirms the diagnosis. The situation can be aggravated by an infection with cancer . Streptococci may rise in number also, this can cause to problems.That is why I start a treatment against this secondary infection with these streptococci in case of a Herpes infection.
Against the virus is basically little to do with antibiotics. After all, antibiotics do not work against viruses. Sambucca nigra has a reputation that it is supportive in cases of infections so that I often prescribe it in the form of Bony Sambucca plus as an additional support for use in drinking water with such an outbreak.
Also Bony SGR can prove its reputation..
Until the beginning of this century the Herpesvirus was generally known as a membrane over the eye.. It was sometimes dropped and that was it. It did not caused much more problems. Clinical cases of infection with herpesvirus were until then a fairly big exception. It is now quite different.
Since 2005 I have tried to motivate firms tocimport a herpes vaccine to the Netherlands. I had heard from a Hungarian colleague that he was very happy over a vaccine. Being raised with the knowledge that the herpesvirus was unsuited to apply to a vaccine, I was naturally skeptical. But if we see the developments in the offspring with regard to this disease and heavy losses on the same youngsters then is to vaccinate them not a bad choice.
Time will tell whether the vaccination of the youngsters here leads to the same positive effects that are related to the report by the Hungarian colleague.
The fact is that it took until last week before a company was successful to get the vaccine to the Netherlands.
Since March 28 there is a vaccine available for use against herpesvirus in pigeons. It is a combination vaccine of herpesvirus with Paramyxovirus. This herpes vaccine should be injected two times , in 3-4 weeks apart to achieve its performance. .Preferably from the age of 5 weeks. In itself, the 2x vaccination against paramyxovirus is without further recommended given the number of old birds that were vaccinated only once, and on research were positive off the paramyxovirus.
Possible that this vaccination is a part of the solution to the loss of birds during the young season.
Colombovac PMV Pox
On March 31 we received notification from the wholesaler that the subsequent delivery of the above noted combination vaccine was withdrawn because it is is no longer available. Our stock of this vaccine is now rapidly shrinking so soon against smallpox only can be vaccinated with the familiar brush.
The delivery of the paratyphoid vaccine is again to stagnate. It is unknown if this vaccine is available again.
Success
Peter Boskamp
