Farmers will not be required to have access to a new national veterinary prescription system (NVPS) that will be introduced on a mandatory basis from June 2022.
While vets will be required to register with the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) to be able to issue the prescription to farmers, farmers themselves will not be required to do the same in order to receive the prescriptions.
However, farmers will be required to access the prescription and information provided by vets in a text message or email, the DAFM has confirmed.
Phase one of the NVPS commenced on a pilot basis on January 31, with a small number of veterinary practitioners, according to the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM).
This pilot phase will continue for up to five weeks.
The aim of the NVPS, according to the DAFM, is to provide a national, secure prescribing system that will record all information required to prescribe and dispense prescription-only veterinary medicines (POMs).
It falls within the remit of a recently introduced Europe-wide veterinary-medicine regulation, part of which requires member states to collect and report on antimicrobial usage.
Initially, the NVPS will support vets in the prescribing and dispensing of medicines for food-producing animals, i.e. cattle; poultry; pigs; horses; deer; goats; and birds.
Companion animals will not be included in the first operational phase of the NVPS, from 2022-2024, but will be added subsequently.
Vets must register with the DAFM to receive access to the NVPS but farmers/animal keepers do not need access to the system to enable them have medicines dispensed, the DAFM has confirmed.