The best medicine?
FARMERS who complain that their work is currently over-regulated by unnecessarily bureaucratic controls have seen nothing as of yet.
Impending EU regulations on the usage of animal medicines are about to make farmers lives considerably more difficult, warns Noel Ryall, co-owner with Sean O’Mahony, of Ryall O’Mahony Farm Supplies.
Dealing with a common problem such as mastitis will no longer be a case of simply going down to the local co-op or agricultural supplier to buy a few mastitis tubes.
Dosing a sheep flock for fluke won’t be a simple matter of buying a suitable drench and getting on with the job.
In future, these commonly used animal medicines will only be available on prescription, and obtaining a whole range of animal medicines will require a visit to the vet.
Noel Ryall of the Independent Animal Health Association, which represents independent retailers of agricultural supplies licensed to sell veterinary medicines, says the legalisation is a done deal in Europe. It’s not going to be changed.
“The European Union has ruled that all medicines used in animal production must be sold under prescription,” he says. “Even run of the mill medicines will require one.”
Our government is committed to adopting the European Union laws. “Already the Dáil is planning to bring in legislation to ensure that all medicines containing antibiotics are only available on prescription,” says Mr Ryall.
These will include items widely available up to now, such as mastitis tubes and foot sprays.
It’s European consumers who are behind the legislation. They’re worried about the amount of residues in their food, and they want the use of animal medicines to be strictly controlled. But Ryall argues that we don’t need this legislation in Ireland. He sees nothing wrong with our present system.
“These new controls are unfair to Irish farmers,” says Ryall. “Residue levels in Irish livestock are negligible. Levels are considerably lower than in other European countries.”
One of the difficulties with the new system will be the availability of vets. “Vets do factory duty, they go out on call, they take holidays. Often, they won’t be available to give out prescriptions,” says Ryall.
“This system just isn’t going to work. It’s another layer of bureaucracy for Irish farmers,” Mr Ryall says.
The availability of veterinarians could be a crucial issue in cases in which swift veterinary intervention is needed. For example, animals with milk fever or grass tetany need immediate treatment, which they may not get if the vet isn’t around to write the necessary prescription.
Perhaps there is an Irish solution to the problem? Why not allow the vets to give out prescriptions that can be used for a year? Perhaps, for annual vaccines such as blackleg, a period of several years could even be considered?
But such a solution has already been suggested and ruled out by the Department. “Joe Walsh has already said in the Dáil that a prescription has to be issued in each individual case,” says Ryall.
For retailers of animal medicines, according to Ryall, the effect of this legislation will be to give vets an unfair advantage in the market place. Retailers could be forced out of business, further increasing the difficulties that farmers will have in getting veterinary supplies.
Outlets such as his own in Midleton, Co Cork, and that of his members and the various co-ops around the country will be unable to compete with the vets.
Veterinarians will be free to write prescriptions for the particular brands they carry themselves. Given the amount of money that pharmaceutical companies spend on junkets and golf trips, with the aim of encouraging vets to promote their particular product, veterinarians would not be human if they weren’t favourably disposed to certain brands.
Ryall also suggests that veterinarians may be tempted to use their position as the only ones who can write prescriptions to the detriment of their competitors in the retail trade.
“In a vet controlled system, where a particular vet knows that his competitor has a different brand, that vet might be inclined to prescribe his own brand,” says Ryall.
But if the legislation is due to be enacted and is past the stage where it can be changed, it seems that, as is the case with much of the legalisation imposed from Brussels, the Irish farmer will just have to grin and bear it. Ryall believes that while we can’t alter the new regulations, it is possible to minimise the level of disruption it will have on the day to day activities of farmers.
One solution would be to increase the number of individuals who are allowed to write prescriptions. He would like to see suitably qualified people, other than vets, being allowed to issue prescriptions for animal remedies.
Independent retailers like Ryall are required to undertake a training course in animal medicines before being issued with a licence to sell them.
Ryall suggests that training could be given which would allow retailers like himself and others to issue prescriptions. It would be much easier for a farmer to get a prescription, if vets weren’t the only group of people who could supply them.
Ryall is currently in touch with all the main farming organisations to alert them to the consequences of the new legislation and to make them aware of the potential consequences for Irish farmers.
“Most farmers don’t realise these regulations are coming,” he says. “They don’t realise how much bureaucracy and paperwork these regulations will cause. We need to introduce practical measures to minimise the added complications they will bring to Irish farming life,” Ryall says.
