10th November 2001

News

Jump in vet bills ahead

By Des Maguire and Paul Mooney

Intramammary antibiotic medicines are to be brought under prescription control, the Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh has announced, giving rise to fears of sharply increased costs for dairy farmers.

Cattle, sheep and pig farmers could also soon be facing a jump in veterinary bills if proposals from the Irish Medicines Board are acted on by the Department.

Joe Walsh has confirmed in the Dail that he "recently" decided to accept the central thrust of last year's report from the Irish Medicines Board which recommended that the sale of antibiotic mastitis tubes though co-ops under present licensing arrangements should be discontinued.

The Irish Medicines Board also wants to curb the availability of cattle, sheep and pig vaccines to farmers as well as mastitis tubes but so far the Minister has not made any decision to confine vaccine sales to vets and pharmacists on the basis of a veterinary prescription.

The Irish Medicines Board wants cattle, sheep and pig vaccines put in the P.O.M. (e) category which means that a vet can issue a prescription based on his knowledge of the herd or flock but need not visit the animals every time they are being treated. This recommendation is being considered by the Department but no decision has yet been reached.

Even though no farm visit would be involved farmers would still have to pay new prescription fees.

The present moves are independent of the draft new EU animal health directive which wants all farm animal medicines prescribed by vets. This directive is not expected to come into force until about three years and is currently being challenged by the U.K. Government.

In reply to a Dail question from Fine Gael deputy John Farrelly the Minister confirmed that his Department would shortly be informing all interested parties about his decision to accept the central thrust of the Irish Medicines Board's report recommending that intramammaries should be brought under prescription control.

"My Department will now consider in detail the implications of this decision in terms of existing legislation. In this context, all stakeholders will be afforded an opportunity to put forward their views and suggestions on the operation of a prescription control scheme in relation to intramammaries, while retaining the essential elements of a prescription control regime," he said.

In their report last year the Irish Medicines Board called for intramammaries to be regulated through a prescription type control system linked to a herd health system on the farm.

The Board also claimed that the mastitis control systems operated by registered co-ops and regulated Health Boards had several shortcomings while the restriction of the licensing of such programmes to registered co-ops could be open to legal challenge.

It said that future legal controls for the supply of intramammary antibacterials should be brought under the control of the Department of Agriculture and that all legislative controls on animal remedies should be consolidated under the Animal Remedies Act.

The board's report has been strongly criticised by the farm organisations, ICOS and APHA, the manufacturers association. Their general argument is that bringing the products under the direct control of vets as prescription only medicines will cause prices to rise sharply without any benefit to the animals or to the dairy industry.

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