There has been a fresh call for the deferral of veterinary medicine regulations in relation to the supply of anti-parasitic medicines.
In December 2021, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, announced a deferral – to June 1, 2022 – of the mandatory requirement for anti-parasitic products to become prescription-only.
The introduction of the mandatory requirement for vets to use a new electronic national veterinary prescribing system (NVPS) was also deferred until this date.
But, chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Animal Health Committee, TJ Maher, is calling for the June 1, implementation date to be deferred further as “no solution to maintain the competitive supply of veterinary medicines” has been found.
“The minister made a decision to defer the implementation to June 1, to provide time to address the concerns of farmers, licensed merchants, and veterinary pharmacies.
“This deadline is now upon us and all stakeholders are left completely unprepared,” he said.
He said the minister should defer further the implementation of this aspect of the new EU veterinary medicine regulations until a practical approach to this contentious issue is agreed by all stakeholders.
He said the National Veterinary Prescription System (NVPS) and the Targeted Advisory Service for Animal Health (TASAH) programme, which is designed to focus on parasite controls on farms this year, in their current formats, are not sufficiently addressing the concerns of farmers.
The animal health chair said that farmers fully support targeted and more appropriate use of all medicines, but additional time will be necessary to find a solution to resolve the genuine concerns around competitive supply.
“It’s within the minister’s remit to defer this in order to resolve the substantive issue of a competitive supply chain for farmers. This will provide an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with all stakeholders.”
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been contacted for comment.