VETERINARY

Turkey farmers are afraid that Black Head disease, a liver parasite, will spread from Holland, France and Germany after the EU banned the only effective drug against the disease – Emtryl. The disease is 100% fatal to young birds. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs supports the ban on Emtryl, but has urged the drug's manufacturer to provide the EU with more information which it believes could lead to the decision being reversed. (BBC Farming Today 27/10/03 )

Viscount Astor asked Her Majesty's Government on 16th Oct 2003 :  Why they are asking all horse and pony owners to apply for horse passports when the required statutory instrument has neither been laid before, nor approved by, Parliament?  Horse and Hound this week gives details of horse passports in other countries. "...... countries which have legislation have no penalties for non-compliance but the UK has written in swinging penalties for an owner without a passport, up to £5000 for 1-10 horses, up to £1000 per horse for more than 10 horses. The latter category would include riding schools - some are still saying they will not buy them." (Warmwell.com 19/10/03 )

Defra has published a leaflet to remind horse owners that there are only 14 weeks left in which to apply for horse passports, which become mandatory from January 1, 2004 . The leaflet entitled What Does This Mean For You? outlines the importance of getting passports, and answers key questions about the application process. Owners must ensure that all their horses, ponies and donkeys have valid passports. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2003 , and from January 1, 2004 it will be illegal to sell an equine without a passport. Approximately 75 per cent of equine veterinary medicines used in the UK have not been approved for horses destined for human consumption, and passports are designed to ensure that horses treated with these medicines never enter the human food chain. There are no figures yet available to suggest what percentage of the UK 's estimated 750,000 to 1 million equines now have passports. Failure to obtain a passport before the deadline could result in a £5,000 fine or one month's imprisonment. "Ultimately, owners without horse passports after the end of the year are at risk of prosecution," added the spokesman. "We are continuing to raise awareness of the issue in order to minimise the number of cases where such action would have to be considered." Defra is unlikely to release final details of the passport scheme before the end of August at the earliest, despite the fact that owners have just a few months to apply for a passport before the end of the year deadline. Fears are growing over a likely end-of-year rush, as several major passport-issuing organisations (PIOs) have not even started processing applications, pending the response on details such as the controversial Section IX "slaughter for human consumption" declaration. Meanwhile, the Government's promised campaign to raise awareness among owners has yet to materialise. "We can't spend any money on the campaign until the legislation is passed, so we're waiting for this," says Defra's Jane Morley. "It's difficult to target horse people, but we are thinking of trying to get to them through tack shops and feed merchants. We're aware that it's a massive task and the deadline is to get people's applications in by the end of this year." So far, the volume of applications and inquiries received across the 50-plus PIOs suggests that not even a quarter of owners of the estimated one million equines in England - Scottish and Welsh legislation is still in its early stages - will have applied for a passport by 2004. The BHS has processed just 2,000 applications so far, and Sport Horse Breeding of Great Britain (SHB(GB)) around 2,500. ( West Midlands News 24 October 2003 )

AN EU directive will ban the sale of all animal medicines except by vets. This is not a health & safety measure but rather it is simply a tidying up exercise to ensure uniformity throughout the EU. This rule principally affects Britain , Ireland and Holland where certain medicines can be sold by authorised non-veterinary outlets. The products affected will be wormers, vaccines, treatment for fly-strike and vitamins. These are known as the PML permitted medicines in Britain . (BBC Farming Today 26/9/03 )This proposal has been around for nearly 10 years and has met with resistance from the UK. But the bureaucrats never give up and despite the fact that hundreds of British businesses will be destroyed, they are determined to push it through - E

A “big” concession has been won by the Irish whereby the EU regulation requiring all animal medicines to be “prescription only” will be phased in over four years until 2007. After that, all outlets selling from the “UK authorised list” will be shut down. (Farmers Guardian 27/6/03 )

Brussels, 18 October 2002 Commission approves EUR 132 million package to fight animal diseases "...All Member States, with the exception of the United Kingdom, submitted the Commission their programmes for these different tests. The programmes have been evaluated by the Commission taking into account the epidemiological situation and the total population of bovine, ovine and caprine animals..." The LandCare website carries a report from the Dundee Courier for 19th Oct with the headline: UK not to share in £84m aid While other European countries have asked for sizeable contributions from the EU package to monitor and control such diseases as BSE and scrapie, the UK - it would appear - has no even applied. (www.warmwell.com 25/10/02)

Animal medicines could be forced off the market by excessive environmental legislation, says the National Office of Animal Health. All animal medicines must now have an Environmental Impact Assessment to meet extremely stringent EU environmental safety requirements for marketing authorisations. The huge cost to companies in providing this information is likely to mean that many medicines are lost, to the detriment of animal welfare. Two-thirds of the animal medicines on the UK market have a turnover of less than £50,000, often specialised niche products for specific conditions. And yet for products needing detailed assessment, a six-figure investment may be needed to carry out the new environmental work. International harmonisation requirements for product registration in Europe, the US and Japan are proposing much more practical levels than those required in the EU. These are based on US experience, where there is a much longer history of Environmental Impact Assessment of animal medicines. All the work companies are asked to do now may well become superfluous in the future, but a lot of money will have been spent and many products will have been lost. There would be unquantifiable to risks to the environment as unauthorised products are substituted for the approved products as they disappear. (Shropshire Farmer February 1999)

All milk drunk in Norway is illegal, according to the rules of the European Economic Area (EEA). The reason is that, since October last year, it has been illegal to treat cows with a medicine that every cow in Norway has received. The Norwegian food standards agency has run into serious trouble. Two months ago, it discovered that two commonly used medicines in Norway were illegal to use for the treatment of dairy cows. The law was part of a European Directive adopted into force under Norwegian law last fall. The breach of EEA law was not discovered until the Norwegian Food Standards Agency recently decided to train its employees to ensure conformity with EEA rules. The medicines, xylazin and lidokain, are minor anaesthetics and are used to ease pain. They are not dangerous. However, the mistake is set to cause significant problems for Norway’s milk exporters. (EUobserver.com 18/9/01)

Phenylbutazone, or bute, was the first really effective painkiller for lame horses and has enabled thousands of them to lead normal active lives. It will be banned in the EU in January 1998. The reason is that in Europe horses are used as meat and humans might receive a dose. No figures exist about how much horsemeat has to be eaten for this to be harmful. The welfare implications of losing the most commonly used painkiller in the horse are enormous. Without it many horses will have to be put down, many will suffer needlessly. The EU has not accepted the UK's exemption from treating the horse as a food animal. (Horse & Hound 14/8/97). Bute has now been granted a temporary exemption until 2000. It is still banned in Holland, Germany and Belgium. (Horse & Hound 2/4/98)

Around 120 equine medicines to be withdrawn from the market because they are not licensed for residues occurring in meat for human consumption. Testing for Maximum Residue Levels, MRLs, is very expensive and unnecessary for horses which are not eaten in the UK (Horse & Hound 18/11/93). A temporary exception may be made for the UK if a declaration is made that the horse is not for eating (BBC 1 Country File). However, a medicine licensed for a food-producing animal must not be used on a non-food producing animal, so horse medicines may not be used on farm animals any more (Vet bulletin for farmers Jan 1995). The British Equine Veterinary Association says that after the year 2000 the majority of medicines used to treat illnesses such as colic, or to anaesthetise a horse, will no longer be legally available. There are no alternatives. This is the single most important issue threatening the future welfare of horses and ponies in the UK. Certain pain relieving drugs, as well as anaesthetics, intravenous fluids, antibiotics and local anaesthetic, had no MRL and, therefore, potentially no marketing authorisation. Although the proportion of horses actually slaughtered for meat is a fraction of the equine population the EC insists that all horses be regarded as though they are to be eaten. (Horse & Hound 2/4/98). The welfare of Britain’s 650,000 horses will be set back to the standards of the 1930s. EC regulation 2377/90 comes into effect in 2000 and there are no exceptions this time. It costs £500,000 to test a drug for meat residues. It will not pay manufacturers to keep their products on the market. Most horses are eaten in Italy, France, and the Benelux countries are imported from America and eastern Europe where many of these drugs will still be freely available. British ministers say there is little they can do. (S Telegraph 5/7/98).

Urgently needed medicines can no longer be left outside the surgery outside regular opening times. It will be necessary to make a charge to meet the farmer when these emergencies occur. It is now against the law to dispense small quantities of injectables in a syringe. Neither can a vet accept back a virtually full medicine container used to dispense a single dose on the farm. A container can contain up to 50 doses. (Vet bulletin for farmers Jan 1995).

There is no longer an anaesthetic approved for use on cattle. The only one that can be used is approved for horses but this can only be used if the horse is classed as a farm animal. Cross species administration of medicines means the minimum withdrawal period is one month. This means that cattle cannot be killed for human consumption if it had an anaesthetic a month before.

Over 1,700 animal medicines have been withdrawn from the UK authorised list of 2,727 following the EEC Directive 81/851. This requires that all established medicines must be re-licensed at a cost of £15,700 per medicine and after 1998 the cost will rise to £78,800. Those that have been withdrawn are in the public domain so may be copied once someone has borne the cost of testing. Some are valuable products, such as the only vaccine against myxomatosis, but have little use so it is uneconomic to test them. (S Telegraph 4/7/93). Not only are prescription medicines covered by these rules but also flea powders, vitamins and rehydration products are also to be restricted (Vet bulletin for farmers Jan 1995). The result of the EU rules has been a massive increase in vet’s bills to pet owners. Regulations intended to prevent drug residues in meat also apply to pets such as cats and dogs. Vets cannot use cheaper generic medicines on them any more as they are not economical to license. These rules are a heavy burden on animal charities which also have to buy expensive branded medicines some of which are not so efficacious (BBC R4 You & Yours 27/7/95). The UK government may defy this regulation to protect a poultry vaccine from withdrawal (BBC R4 Farming Programme). The ban on minority drugs for animals contrasts with the leniency for drugs for minority human diseases. Special rules are proposed by the EC to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to develop products for rare diseases. There will be market exclusivity for so called orphan drugs. Firms will pay reduced fees to register their products with the European Medicines Evaluation Agency. (E Voice 9/7/98)

All animal medicines currently sold by specialist merchants and agricultural suppliers will only be sold by vets. 1000 businesses to go. This directive has been referred to a working party. Tack shops will be forbidden to sell fly repellent (Horse & Hound 18/11/93).

There are very few products currently licensed for goats and other minority food animal species. The few remaining licences are likely to be surrendered shortly. The Director of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate suggested that pharmaceutical companies should be persuaded to apply for licences. This process, if they are interested, could take over two years to percolate through the system (British Goat Society, October 1996)

Orfoids were a popular traditional remedy for orf, a disease in sheep. Now they are sold as Ovaloids and it is forbidden to mention what they are for. The packaging says, "they are useful for the well-being of sheep". Sales of this product have consequently fallen. The supplier of this product Battle, Hayward and Bower Ltd. has suffered severely from the EEC directives 81/851 and 81/852, which require evidence that products are efficacious. This is extremely expensive to prove with herbal based products like Orfoids, the company lost its licence. Battle, Hayward and Bower mention that they had to remove lindane from their sheep dip although in France it is still used. Neither Ireland nor Italy have started to implement 81/851 and 81/852 while the UK has finished the re-licensing operation (Battle Hayward & Bower, Lincoln 23/5/94). Another company selling a remedy for orf is D Brincombe of Crediton. Its product is Tub-Orf and this highly regarded medication was also banned by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. It is now called Frobut, Tub-Orf backwards, but again no claim can be made for its actual role. Another example of pointless bureaucratic intervention attempting to shut down a valued business (PE 8/3/96)

Aspirin, bicarbonate of soda and liquid paraffin will be withdrawn from use by vets because they have not been subject to the expensive licensing and testing procedure. This regulation derives from EC Directive 90/676 covering remedies for human use used on animals. Contravention leads to a fine of £5,000. (S Telegraph 19/6/94).

Somatosalm is an important new drug that reduces mortality when salmon move from fresh to salt water. It has been developed using an EU grant by a new Belgian company, Pharos. They applied to the EU for registration over 18 months ago. The response has been that they object to the name, it sounds too much like Bovine Somatotrophin. BST has been banned but because Somatosalm leaves no harmful residues it implies that BST does not either. This is the only reason; there is no scientific evidence for refusing registration. (FT 8/2/96 and New Scientist)