NEW regulations adopted by the European Parliament on the use of plant protection products were given a guarded welcome yesterday by the Animal and Plant Health Association (APHA).

TILLAGE farming may become uneconomic due to EU proposals to limit effective products used to control the fungal diseases to which Irish grain and potato crops are uniquely vulnerable.

MANY of the 243,500 animal deaths on farms last year could have been prevented, the Animal and Plant Health Association annual conference was told in Portlaoise yesterday.

THE difference in net profit between the top and poorest-performing suckler beef herds is €400 per hectare, figures from the Teagasc National Farm Survey reveal.

PETS are good for the physical and emotional health of people, young and old, it was claimed yesterday.

EUROPEAN Union proposals to dramatically reduce the use of plant protection products have major implications for the competitiveness of Irish tillage farming, a conference was told yesterday.

A NEW compendium of veterinary medicines available to farmers has been published by the Animal and Plant Health Association (APHA).

CURRENT off-prescription veterinary medicines will not have to be reclassified as prescription only, according to the Department of Agriculture and Food’s interpretation of the criteria for exempting certain medicines from the EU general requirement that all veterinary medicines for food producing animals be supplied only on the basis of prescriptions.

ANIMAL health regulations, to come into effect on January 1, are counter-productive and will have major implications for farmers and the animal health industry, the Animal and Plant Health Association (APHA) conference was told.

VETS were accused at a yesterday of having “a superior attitude” to farmers.

THE new chairman of the Animal and Plant Health Association (APHA), the representative body for manufacturers and distributors of animal and plant health products, is Philip Howlin.

THE impact on farmers of the new EU animal medicines and welfare regulations will be discussed at the annual conference of the Animal and Plant Health Association (APHA) at the Heritage Golf Club, Killenard, Co Laois, on Tuesday, September 12.

PHARMACISTS, agricultural co-ops and merchants, agricultural graduates and animal health companies have joined farmers in asking Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan to allow persons other than vets to prescribe certain animal remedies.

An animal health group are opposing plans by the European Commission to ban farmers from using non-prescription medicines on their food-producing animals.