Incoming veterinary regulations will create a chokehold on the supply of animal medicines, with farmers only sold the exact amount of wormer or antibiotic needed for an individual animal.

Currently, farmers can freely buy bottles of wormers from vets or licensed merchants, but after January 2022, EU rules mean the blanket treatment or worming of a herd of animals will not be possible without a prescription and proof that all animals need to be treated.

There will also be a time limit on antibiotic prescriptions which would have to be filled within five days – the same time limit would not be on wormers.

The regulations include sweeping electronic changes, where farmers will be issued with a text or email prescription, which will simultaneously be uploaded to a computer system overseen by the Department of Agriculture.

Department principal Colm Forde, who oversees veterinary regulations, told the Irish Farmers Journal that the new national veterinary prescribing system will mean the Department could see “every prescription issued in the State”.

Despite concerns raised by TDs in an Oireachtas agriculture committee meeting on Tuesday, Forde said farmers could take prescriptions to any licensed merchant to buy wormers.

However, it is not known if vets will charge for just issuing a prescription.

Forde said that hard prescription copies would still be available to farmers and the data would belong to farmers, and other bodies would not be given access to it.

Despite the positive stance of the Department, Veterinary Ireland president Conor Geraghty voiced his concern that the system had still not been seen by vets or farmers with just months until its introduction.

“It’s a whole lot of extra works for vets and we still haven’t got engagement from the Department,” Geraghty said.