Veterinary Ireland has described the signing of new Veterinary Medicines Regulations as a “missed opportunity” in addressing the problem of anthelmintic resistance.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue signed the Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulations 2024 into law yesterday (Thursday, September 12).
The regulations provide for tighter controls around the “prudent use” of antiparasitic medications. This includes the upregulation of all antiparasitics to prescription-only medicine (POM) status.
Veterinary Ireland, the representative organisation for veterinary practitioners in Ireland, has stated that Minister McConalogue, in providing for an alternative distance-prescribing arrangement for antiparasitic veterinary medicines has “undermined” their ability to “address the growing challenge of antiparasitic resistance in Ireland”.
The organisation stated: “The minister through the inclusion of an alternative proper assessment protocol for the prescribing of antiparasitic veterinary medicines in the regulations has downgraded the prescribing of antiparasitic veterinary medicines in order to address a perceived commercial issue.”
Conor Geraghty, chair of the Veterinary Ireland medicines working group said: “To address the issue of resistance we must ensure that the right product is given to the right animals at the right time, that refugia is maintained through selective, targeted treatments and that parasite control becomes a planned farm-specific procedure.
Geraghty explained that this can be achieved through farm-specific advice from the farmers’ vet where a client-patient-practice-relationship (CPPR) is in existence.
He said that this advice must be ongoing and monitored, take account of farm specific issues such as epidemiology, pharmacology, the clinical picture, stocking densities, buying policy and local factors.
Geraghty said: “It is vital that farmers engage with their own veterinary practitioner to get proper tailored advice on dosing arrangements, and this will result in farmers using less antiparasitic veterinary medicines, savings to famers and improved productivity and profit, whilst addressing resistance.”
Veterinary Ireland has called on the minister to support this engagement between farmers and their vets.
Hazell Mullins, president of Veterinary Ireland, said: “The definition of 24-hour cover in the regulations presents a real risk to the level of veterinary service that animal owners in Ireland have been accustomed to up until now.
“It is clear that the Veterinary Council of Ireland’s Code of Professional Conduct is at variance with this alternative distance-prescribing arrangement in the Regulations.
The proper assessment protocol does not require the provision of 24-hour cover in the traditional sense where the client’s vet is available to treat animals 24/7 365 days a year.
“Under these regulations, the prescribing vet who has no knowledge of the farm will only have to provide cover for an adverse reaction to the treatment prescribed,” Mullins said.
In relation to the proposed introduction of the National Veterinary Prescription System (NVPS), which is a requirement of the state to collect antimicrobial usage data, Veterinary Ireland has stated it will continue its engagement with DAFM on an agreed roll-out of this system.