Presidential Decree No. 233 amending Presidential Decree No. 259/1998, in compliance with Directive 2003/74/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

With this Decree the provisions of Part A of Presidential Decree No. 259/1998 are amended, in compliance with Directive 2003/74/EC. More specifically, according to the new articles 3, it is prohibited a) the placing on the market of the substances listed in Annex II, list A, for administering to animals of all species and b) the placing on the market of the substances listed in Annex VI, list B, for administering to animals, the flesh and products of which are intended for human consumption, for purposes other than those provided for in paragraph 2 of article 5 and in article 6a. Also, article 4 to Presidential Decree No. 259/1998 is hereby replaced: it shall be prohibited, for substances listed in Annex VI, and shall provisionally be prohibited, for substances listed in Annex VII of Part A the administering of those substances to farm or aquaculture animals, the holding of animal in which the presence of such substances has been established, the processing and placement on the market for human consumption of meat of such animals. A new article 6a is added, permitting the administering to farm animals of veterinary medicinal products containing an oestrogenic for the purpose of zootechnical treatment. Also, a new article 12a is added prescribing that farm animals for which it can be certified that they have been administered oestradiol 17β or its ester-like derivatives for therapeutic or zootechnical purposes prior to 14 October 2004 shall be subject to the same provisions as those laid down for the substances authorised in accordance with article 5(1) as regards therapeutic use and Article 5 as regards zootechnical use.