EDMONTON — Livestock producers are expressing concerns about availability and prices of common antibiotics once new regulations take effect on Dec. 1.
Farm supply stores sell some of the products, but unless a pharmacist is available to fill prescriptions, producers will have to buy medically important antibiotics from veterinarians.
“There has been a lot of confusion about the new rules,” said Jerome Chamberlain of UFA.
The co-operative has 35 outlets in Alberta with 100,000 members. About 10,000 of them buy veterinary drugs from UFA, Chamberlain said at the Alberta Beef Producers meeting in Edmonton June 11-13.
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Health Canada regulations have moved about 300 products into a prescription-drug-use category.
As of Dec. 1, all medically important products will require a veterinary prescription, but the practitioner does not have to administer the drugs. A valid veterinary-client relationship is also required to obtain the drugs.
“There is a bit of grey about what that exactly means because they wanted to have a bit of flexibility,” said veterinarian Gerald Hauer of Alberta Agriculture.
The veterinarian needs knowledge of the farm to make a decisions about treatments and maintain records, provide follow up and be available if there is an adverse reaction.
Veterinarians have the experience, education and accountability to their professional organization and they are being trained about their responsibility under the new rules, said Hauer.
UFA agrees with the policy that requires more professional oversight and prescriptions but it does not agree with limiting the dispensing of products to veterinarians and pharmacies. It may also cause a conflict of interest if the veterinarian prescribes and sells the drugs.
“We feel that causes problems with accessibility,” Chamberlain said. “We believe that the prescription itself provides the necessary oversight. The prescription itself sets control on the use of those antibiotics,” he said.
The company has met with the federal agriculture minister and along with commodity groups has lobbied for changes in dispensing rules.
“We do plan to lobby for changes to the dispensing rule. We believe it is very restrictive on who can sell these products,” he said.
UFA planned to keep selling up to the deadline but stores are already running out of products because suppliers are not replenishing them.
Hiring a pharmacist may not be the answer because almost no pharmacies in Canada sell veterinary drugs. Pharmacists are trained to understand drugs prescribed to people but they are not trained in animal production.
Alberta’s intensive livestock working group plans to meet with the veterinary medical association to discuss options.
The decision to control antibiotic use brings Canada in line with many other countries. Part of the effort is to control the use of antibiotics and stay ahead of antimicrobial resistance.
“Their goal is to protect the efficacy, the ability to work of medically important antibiotics,” said Hauer.
“Multi-drug-resistant bacteria are very bad and none of the antibiotics in the arsenal can treat them. That multi-drug resistance is becoming more common all the time,” he said.
Alberta is in the process of creating an antimicrobial resistance strategy, which is due to come out in about a year. The province is also working with Health Canada and the other provinces to talk about stewardship, infection prevention and control.
The World Health Organization has proposed reduced use in food-producing animals overall, but has acknowledged drugs are needed to treat illnesses and improve animal welfare.
WHO also recommends restricting the use of antimicrobials for prevention of infectious disease or growth promotion, as well as a ban on medically important products. There are some who say no antibiotics should be allowed for animals because they are too important for human health.
Giving antibiotics to livestock for growth promotion or disease prevention is often cited as being responsible for the growing resistance problems. However, research is not showing a strong correlation between antibiotic resistance in humans and livestock.
“It doesn’t really matter who is more responsible. We need to do what’s right,” he said.
“Our goal is not to get rid of resistance. Our job is to slow down the progression of it.”
