Medicine accessibility is key to future animal welfare strategy says NOAHThe health and welfare of the nation's farm and companion animals is dependent on continuing and improving access to preventive and therapeutic animal medicines, says the National Office of Animal Health. In its submission to the DEFRA consultation paper on preparing for an animal health and welfare strategy for Great Britain, NOAH stresses that there is much scientific expertise within the animal medicine industry, which is available to help DEFRA. The people involved with researching the medicines of the future are there, along with those that know how existing medicines can be most effectively used in particular situations to help prevent and cure disease. An innovative animal health industry is essential for improving animal health but the nature of disease is dynamic and, unless there is a responsive industry addressing new disease challenges, overall health status will decline. But, says NOAH, the industry cannot thrive if regulations are unnecessarily restrictive so as to prevent new medicines from reaching the market that would have otherwise been beneficial to animal welfare or to force existing medicines from the market because it becomes unviable to retain them. Likewise, while medicine use should be controlled, they should also be accessible. Just as healthy food is produced from healthy animals, sick companion animals cannot do their job, whether that be as trusted friend or as assistance dog. NOAH expresses concerns that companion animals seem to have been an afterthought to the consultation process. The association also highlights the continuing conflict over the status of the horse. Within the EU it is a food-producing species: there are moves towards identifying individual horses as food producing animals to allow continued access to many medicines for the others - the vast majority of which could be accurately termed 'working' animals. Any strategy for horse welfare, says NOAH, must ensure horses have continued access to a full range of animal medicines, including, for those not entering the food chain, those for which a Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) is not established. "We support the Government's vision of 'consistently high standards in animal health and welfare'," says NOAH chief executive Philip Sketchley. "We fully endorse the continuing need for responsible use of veterinary medicines and have been very encouraged by the latest residues surveillance figures which show that no UK authorised use of a veterinary medicinal product resulted in a residue which would give cause for concern for human health. "However, it is important that those who draft future regulations understand that responsible use does not always mean less use. It is as responsible to use a medicine to stop an animal getting sick - vaccines for example - as it is to cure a sick animal. Preventive medicine for both farm and companion animals should be the way forward in responsible medicine use to protect animal health and welfare." NOAH also stresses that it is important for the government to look beyond the sectors of farmed livestock and companion animals in developing a national animal health strategy. "Account should also be taken of wildlife as a vector of disease," says Philip Sketchley. "There are already issues with TB, and the potential arrival of rabies and West Nile Virus, as well as non-zoonotic animal diseases, should not be ignored."
24 April 2003 Notes for EditorsFor further information contact Phil Sketchley or Alison Glennon at NOAH, tel. +44 (0)20 8367 3131. Link here to NOAH's submission to DEFRA. The National Office of Animal Health was formed on 1 January 1986 to represent the UK companies which research, develop, manufacture and market licensed animal health products. The association has 36 corporate members and 13 associate members. In 2002 NOAH's members accounted for well over 90% of the £389 million UK animal health market More information on DEFRA's Animal Health and Welfare Strategy is available on the DEFRA website www.defra.gov.uk.
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