As of 1 January 2026, there are a number of important changes to the registration of antibiotic use in animals that are necessary to comply with European regulations, namely Regulation 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal products and Delegated Regulation 2021/578, and the pending amendments to the Royal Decree of 21 July 2016.
🔹 Expansion of animal categories
Antibiotic use must be registered in Sanitel-Med for the following animal categories: cattle (including veal calves), pigs, all poultry species, sheep, goats, camelids, cervids and food-producing rabbits.
The use of antibiotics in horses and food-producing aquaculture must be registered in the newly developed tool VAMREG.
🔹 Change in age categories in young cattle
The age category ‘calf 3 to 8 months’ will become ‘4 to 12 months’ and ‘young cattle 8 to 24 months’ will become ‘13 to 24 months’. This is necessary to correctly report the use of antibiotics according to the categories defined at the European level.
🔹 Registration of the indication in Sanitel-Med
Upon registration, the condition for which the antibiotic is used must be indicated and selected from the list of eleven predefined general conditions in Sanitel-Med.
🔹 Stricter monitoring of compliance with deadlines for registration according to the Royal Decree of 21 July 2016
There will be stricter monitoring of the deadlines for submitting antibiotic use registrations in Sanitel-Med and VAMREG. Timely and accurate registration is essential to ensure high data quality and effective monitoring of antibiotic use.
Click here for more information on the changes as of 1 January 2026.
Click here to learn more about Sanitel-Med.
Click here for more information on VAMREG.
For more information, please contact the VetAMR team at amr.vet@fagg.be.