Veterinary prescribing rights
Formerly: Use of prescription animal remedies
- May 2014 – PAC requested that Use of PARs in the pig poultry industry be combined - Working Group: Ran Tal, Susan Bibby, Mary Barton, Graham Swinney, Greg Marr.
- October 2014 – no draft produced for voting – abandoned
- May 2015 draft produced but was sent back to a working group Working group: Mary Barton, Sarah DeGreef, Carmel Kerwick, Susan Bibby, Ray Batey
- Draft produced for May 2015 booklet
- Voted to go back to same working group in May 2015
- October 2015 – no draft produced
- May 2016. Draft produced by Ray Batey – decision to make it about PARs in general and separately update 1999 policy on Antimicrobial use
- May 2016 vote – back to WG, then to AVJ
- WG: Mary Barton, Alex Burleigh, Ray Batey, Emma Davis, Glenn Browning
- October 2016 – decision point – vote to go to AVJ or back to WG
Policy
Veterinary prescribing rights (to obtain, possess, administer, prescribe, supply or recommend veterinary chemicals, medicines or poisons) are a privilege conferred on individual registered veterinarians. They impart authority to enable access by owners to veterinary medicines which might otherwise be unavailable because of scheduling, label directions or not being registered as a veterinary chemical for the species or purpose.
The proper exercise of prescribing rights by veterinarians is critical in ensuring the ongoing availability of appropriate medication to treat and manage animal disease and to ensure good animal welfare outcomes.
To ensure the safety of humans or animals in contact with treated animals, and to protect trade, veterinarians must have, and appropriately exercise, the authority to extend the withholding or rehandling periods for registered veterinary chemicals, or to establish those periods when they do not exist, including for unregistered chemicals. The obligation to observe those extended periods must be affirmed to animal owners and industries.
Background
Veterinary prescribing rights are limited by: legislation or regulation across different jurisdictions nationally in respect to the registration, availability and use of veterinary chemicals; by considerations of public health and safety, and of international trade; as well as being determined by the obligations of a veterinarian to individual clients and animals under his or her care.
Guidelines
Veterinary prescribing rights should only be exercised in the course of one’s practice as a registered veterinary surgeon requiring adequate knowledge of the relevant legislation, species, purpose for which the medicine is being administered, properties of the veterinary medicine, the animal(s) under treatment and the owner or enterprise involved.
Veterinarians exercising prescribing rights must provide adequate directions in writing and ensure these are made available to those administering the veterinary medicine or likely to be affected by their contact with the treated animals.
Veterinary prescribing rights should not be exercised contrary to a label restraint or best prescribing practice for a particular class of veterinary chemical.
The exercise of veterinary prescribing rights requires a veterinarian to consider whether a substance may be misused in performance animals, used or abused in humans, or administered contrary to a restraint or other prohibition, which may include whether a treated animal or product may be excluded from a particular activity or market. Examples include the administration of certain substances in racing, and administration of sex hormones to livestock intended for Europe.
Recommendations
Legislation and regulation affecting veterinary prescribing rights should be harmonised across jurisdictions including the Commonwealth, States and Territories and among regulatory agencies.
Agencies regulating the use of veterinary chemicals or medicines in any animal industry should communicate and affirm to participants in those industries their obligations in respect to the use of any veterinary chemical or medicine requiring veterinary authorisation. This responsibility should not be delegated to veterinarians without adequate resources or support from the relevant agency.
Related policies
AVA Code of Practice for the use of prescription animal remedies in the poultry industry
AVA Code of Practice for the use of prescription animal remedies in the pig industry