Responsible use of medicines and medicine recording
Abstract
In his presentation at the UK-Vet Healthy Herd 2020 Digital Event on 21st October 2020 Professor Barrett spoke to a mixed audience of both farmers and veterinary surgeons. His talk on the ‘Responsible use of medicines and medicine recording’ in livestock, explained the key factors that influence best-practice treatment decisions within the context of legislation, quality assurance and market demand.
The most important things that both veterinary surgeons and farmers need to remember include the legal framework in which we use medicines, the importance of considering antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the risks of residues entering the food chain. In his talk, Professor Barrett also touched on antimicrobial use targets and monitoring and recording as they relate to on-farm medicine use and future uncertainty in-cluding changes after the Brexit transition period ends at the end of 2020.
Responsible use of medicines encompasses many things including the consideration of antimicrobial resistance, anthelmintic resistance, animal health and welfare, food quality and safety and safeguarding the food supply, environmental impacts and various aspects of veterinary public health. The Veterinary Medicines Regulations set out legal text on the manufacture, authorisation, marketing, distribution and post-authorisation surveillance of veterinary medicines and are implemented by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). Professor Barrett discussed this and the veterinary medicine distribution categories, focusing mainly on Prescription Only Medicines in both the veterinarian (POM-V) and veterinarian, pharmacist and SQP (POM-VPS) classifications.
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