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Plans to introduce compulsory prescriptions for routine dosing products for livestock are completely over the top, ICSA animal health and welfare chair Hugh Farrell has said.
He has called on Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to take a pragmatic approach to the issue.
“[The] ICSA does not want to see a regime severely curtailing the conditions under which routine wormer and other doses or vaccines are supplied. We need a more sensible approach.
“EU regulation 2019/6 still provides for an exemption from prescription control, although the grounds have tightened. [The] ICSA believes that the Department has been too quick to rush into pushing for prescription-only status for anti-parasitic doses.
“There is no agreement among stakeholders that this should be the outcome. Instead, there is deep concern that this will lead to an erosion of competition, whereas farmers want to be free to choose between vets, pharmacies and licensed merchants,” Farrell said.
Northern Ireland
Farrell warned that it was not sensible to have a different regime than that which applies in Northern Ireland.
“Apart from the risk of cross-border purchasing, the reality is that a tighter regime in the Republic will make our farmers less competitive.
“We have no doubt that the restrictive regime proposals will add cost through reduced competition and excess bureaucracy.”
He also pointed to the fact that vets are already over-worked and in some locations farmers are finding increased delays in getting vets out to emergency situations.
“Having vets tied up doing prescriptions and potentially having to do unnecessary wasteful farm visits will exacerbate the situation where they are not immediately available for an emergency call-out,” he said, adding that the authorities are citing anthelmintic resistance as a reason for a “much more draconian regime”.
He said making doses prescription-only is not going to change the fluke challenge on wet farms.
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