Since 1994, vets in Denmark have not been allowed to sell antibiotics directly to farmers.

The rule was brought in to help stop the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the preventative use of antibiotics.

Vet Poul Baekbo of Seges, the advisory and research organisation of Danish farmers, said that “from one day to another, half of vets’ income was removed”.

However, with increased consumer awareness of AMR and animal welfare, Baekbo pointed out that Denmark has consistently managed to decrease its dependence on antibiotics.

Between 2015 and 2018, the country succeeded in reducing antibiotic usage by almost 15%.

He added, however, that in 1994 some vets found it extremely hard to survive without the sale of antibiotics.

Mandatory consultations

The government attempted to mitigate the financial impact on vets by insisting that each farm had to have six to 12 consultation visits a year to help develop a one-to-one relationship between farmer and vet.

Now the system in operation in Denmark means that vets can only prescribe a medicine and the farmer must buy it directly from a pharmacy.

A prescription must be used within 35 days of being issued – similar to a new regulation brought in by the Veterinary Council of Ireland, which states that farmers should have been visited by a vet within 30 days of having a prescription issued.

Pharmacy sales

The pharmacy must provide information on the medicine quantity, name of the farmer and animal identification code along with other pieces of information to a database called VetStat.

VetStat was started by the Danish authorities in 2000 and is an up-to-date record of every antibiotic prescribed for every animal in Denmark.

In the interest of transparency, Baekbo said that anyone can then apply to access VetStat and see how much antibiotics any farmer is using.

The move could be seen as invasive, and some concerns have been raised about large pharmaceutical companies having access to the register.

Sign of the future?

The tighter rules around antibiotic usage and monitoring on Danish farms might also be indicative of what might come into force across Europe in 2021, with the recent adoption of stricter controls around animal antibiotics by the European Commission.

The new Commission rules will include a higher level of recording around the sale of antibiotics in member states and stricter control of animal imports from non-EU countries in regard to veterinary medicines.

Among the rules to be implemented is the possibility of some antibiotics being taken off the market for animals and only used for human purposes.

The EU Commission has yet to lay down detailed rules of how the tighter regulations will impact trade, but have said they should not be looked upon as a “trade barrier”, but rather as recognition that AMR does not respect borders.

Yellow card system

In Denmark they also operate a yellow card system, which limits the amount of antibiotics each farm can use per day.

For example, on a Danish pig farm only up to 20% of the young pigs can be treated with antibiotics per day.

Baekbo said that since the yellow card system has come into place in 2011, not a single farmer had received a red card and been investigated for overuse of antibiotics.

With increased consumer awareness around antibiotics, the pressure is on to continue reducing antibiotic usage, but Baekbo said that this would be potentially difficult.

“Now it becomes more and more difficult because we are already on a very low use of antibiotics, so even to reduce further will be much more challenging,” Baekbo concluded.