New veterinary medicines legislation that will restrict antibiotic usage after January 2022, will be a ‘big culture shock to the farming community’ according to Veterinary Ireland president, Conor Geraghty.
Much of the debate surrounding the new EU veterinary medicines regulations, so far, has been dominated by the fact that anti-parasitics will become prescription-only medicines (POMs).
But the other side – the clampdown on prophylactic use of antibiotics, a common farming practice – needs to be highlighted more, the Galway vet said.
In part one of a series, the Veterinary Ireland president talks to Agriland about the upcoming changes to farmers’ use of antimicrobials – specifically antibiotics – and their consequences.
But before we can proceed to focus on the restriction on antibiotics usage, there are a few anti-parasitics-related issues that the Veterinary Ireland president addressed.
The anti-parasitics debate
The Independent Licensed Merchants Association (ILMA), which represents 1,600 members, has highlighted concerns around job losses and the impact to rural communities should anti-parasitics become POMs.
Indeed, similar sentiments have been expressed in a recently published report by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine (JOCAFM).
But, Conor said he said he believes that much of the narrative that has emerged from the anti-parasitics debate so far has pitted the ‘big bad vets’ against these other outlets, and the RPs working in them.
Responding to the ongoing call for anti-parasitics to continue to be sold by the ‘responsible person’ (RP) at a licensed merchants, co-ops or veterinary pharmacies, Conor said that the important role of the RP and those outlets in dispensing medicines has been acknowledged by everyone, and that important role will continue.
“But a significant proportion of the RPs that have been referred to [in this debate] actually work in veterinary practices too. We had to train our staff to the same level to do the job that is being done in the co-op, or any of the other outlets,” said Conor.
According to him, 400-500 of the 1,600 RPs in the country work in veterinary practices – something which has been overlooked, he said.
“And they continue to dispense product on foot of a prescription, as they will in the other outlets.”
But when asked if he believes that this does, in fact, sway an advantage in the vets direction, he responded:
“We have a situation, currently, where veterinary pharmacies, especially, are distributing vast amounts of POMs to farmers. They wouldn’t be doing that [if the vets had an advantage] would they?”
And, in addressing a concern by the JOCAFM about the number and location of vets in the country, and their ability to provide ‘prompt access to prescriptions’, he responded:
“Every livestock farmer has a vet and must have a vet to get a herd number. I would say that vets are more accessible than any other outlets – they are the only ones that are open 24/7 for a start – obviously not for prescribing anti-parasitics.
“But farmers have 24-hour access to a vet, and they don’t have that same access to a pharmacy or a co-op. So, that is a bottle of smoke as far as I am concerned.
“At the end of the day, the legislation is about getting farmers to plan their anthelmintic treatment rather than running down to the nearest outlet, buying the first thing they see, bringing it home and then wondering why it doesn’t work.”
New legislation
The above scenario is one of the things that the new regulations is aiming to address – let’s prevent the disease in the first instance through better herd-health management, rather than throwing drugs at the problem and then calling the vet when that fails.
Another key aspect of the regulations is the reduction in the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals.
“This will be a much bigger culture shock to the farming community than having to get a prescription to source their dosing products. But this hasn’t been highlighted near as much,” he said.
While not disputing the necessity for change when it comes to the usage of antibiotics – this must be done to prevent antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the reality is that farmers have used antibiotics as a management tool for a very long time and old habits, as they say, die hard.
“AMR has been identified as a global health threat that would have ranked above the Covid-19 pandemic when this legislation was written.
“It is expected to surpass cancer as the main cause of human death by 2050. So, it is a serious thing, and agriculture has a role to play in it,” he said.
To put a figure on it, that is 10 million people – by 2050.
AMR is an inevitable part of using antimicrobials, Conor explained. As a certain proportion of bugs become resistant, they will grow in population the more the antimicrobials are used.
‘As little as possible but as much as necessary’ is a tagline used in the veterinary profession for very good reason.
“The reality is that, over the decades, antibiotics have been used as a management tool, and as a means of minimising the need to call out a vet,” said Conor.
Some farmers may take that to the limit, and other farmers are more prudent, but under the new EU regulations neither farmer will be able to use antimicrobials – or more likely, certain antibiotics – in the same way as they have done.
“Farmers won’t be able to keep a stock of antibiotics just in case animals get sick. And you can’t use an antibiotic on an animal just in case it gets sick either.
“So you can’t have prophylactic use, and there will be limited metaphylactic use, which means, if there is one animal in a group with a disease and even if you know that the rest of them are going to get sick, you won’t be able to treat them all as you would have done.”
Over-dependency
Farmer dependency on antibiotics has intensified over the last two decades, Conor said, and that has impacted veterinary business as many farmers self-treat rather than call the vet.
“Essentially, the farmer is prescribing drugs themselves, but that is going to change and there will be a lot more onus on vets regarding what they prescribe and how long in advance.”
This change will be amplified when it comes to drying off cows and treating them for mastitis – the days of blanket treatment will be no more.
“For example, the farmer might predict that he will need four boxes of mastitis tubes for the springtime period, and he would be able to get them under the old system. But he wont be able to any longer. We will probably be only able to prescribe for a cow or two at a time.”
While these antibiotics are all POMs, under old rules, a vet could write a prescription that could be filled within 12 months. Under the new rules, Conor said, the time limit will be just five days.
“If a farmer has an ongoing issue with mastitis, under the old legislation, you could prescribe a year-long prescription for tubes and the farmer could use it as they wanted to.
“Now, that won’t be the case and only the condition that is detected and diagnosed can be treated, and that prescription then has to be filled within five days,” he said.
Veterinary prescription off-farm
The Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI) has confirmed, however, that a vet will not have to be on the farm in all situations to issue a prescription.
“The vet, based on a threshold of knowledge of the animal(s), will offer advice, diagnoses and treatment as appropriate,” the VCI told Agriland.
Conor added:
“The VCI has decided that a vet can prescribe for animals under their care. So, if I want to prescribe for an animal that I am not performing an examination on, that I haven’t visited, I can do that if the animal is already under my care and I can demonstrate constant clinical care of that animal – which is right and proper,” he said.
Conor’s advice to farmers
When we are talking to farmers, we ask them to look back at the previous year and identify the problems that they have had. If they had a lot of pneumonia, for example, then they need to come and talk to us, and we can put in a plan to reduce it.
Prevention better than cure
“Everyone is being asked to use less [antimicrobials] now but for farmers who have disease outbreaks, the pressure will come on them to take alternative action, rather than try to cure their animals when they get sick.”
Prevention is better than cure, said Conor.
“The changes to antibiotics are the single most draconian piece of legislation to come in for antibiotics and nobody is paying any heed to it because everyone is obsessed with anti-parasitics.”