Changes to vet medicine rules cause confusion

Confusion continues to reign on the rollout of the new veterinary medicine regulations and what they will mean for farmers, merchants and vets.

The law states that “completion of the proper assessment protocol set out in the schedule is not required if the prescribing veterinarian is providing ongoing veterinary services to the owner or keeper of a herd or flock, including clinical animals in it”.

This effectively means that if a farmer’s vet is treating animals on thier farm, no proper assessment protocol is needed.

In contrast to this, if the farmer wishes to purchase the product from a merchant, they will be required to visit the merchant on two occasions to purchase the product, one to sign the assessment in order to get a prescription and then to come back and collect the product.

There also seems to be a poor level of understanding of what “therapeutic and non-therapeutic” treatments mean for prescriptions with vets and merchants.

Error

Ray Doyle of the the Irish Co-operative Society (ICOS) said the minister has made a serious error by not allowing all co-ops and licensed merchants to distribute all vaccines.

“The current drafted law is perfectly structured for prescribing vaccines via the other assessment protocol, but he blatantly removed the co-ops and merchants from distributing vaccines. Ironically, he created a statutory instrument unsuitable for prescribing anti-parasitic medicines, as his version of including us in the anti parasitic market. We will not be able to get vets to legally prescribe products unless a new code is issued from the Veterinary Council of Ireland.”

The ACORN group of merchants has written to the minister, outlining their frustration and disbelief at the current regulation, with many now fearing for survival.

Two-tier system

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Ollie Ryan from the Irish Licensed Merchants Association said the minister “has made a mighty mess of medicines” and created a two-tier prescribing system and a two-tier retailing system for anti-parasitic medicines.

“The requirements for prescribing of all anti-parasitic medicine should be equal for all vets. By creating different requirements for vets in practice prescribing through an association with a merchant or co-op, than for vets prescribing to their own clients, who in many cases will also sell this product to their clients, effectively creates a barrier to competition,” he said.

“This will lead ultimately to a monopoly in the sale of anti-parasitic medicines by veterinary practitioners. The removal of a level playing field here will ultimately end up in increased prices paid by farmers.”