Recommendations heading in wrong direction, say FVE

The Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) has expressed its concern regarding the European Parliament's suggestion of separating the right to prescribe from the right to sell antimicrobials.

While the federation says it welcomes any initiative that would help minimise antimicrobial resistance, it stressed that decoupling the right to prescribe and sell has been shown by studies not to be an effective measure to reduce resistance.

The suggestion was highlighted in the European Parliament's report, Microbial Challenge - Rising threats from Antimicrobial Resistance, written by Mrs. Rosback. Paragraph 4a reads, "(…) separating the right to prescribe from the right to sell antimicrobials (…)".

FVE claims the report is heading in the wrong direction by recommending decoupling prescriptions from sales.

"Our federation has taken several initiatives to contain the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria in veterinary medicine: disease prevention, promotion of responsible use of medicines, recordkeeping, and monitoring of resistance are the cornerstones of FVE's strategy," said Christophe Buhot, President of FVE.

"There is no clear evidence from differences in amounts of antimicrobials used between countries that have and that haven't decoupled," he added.

A previous report, the Berenschot report, examined the effects of decoupling prescription and sales of veterinary medicines and concluded this "would not be effective". Berenschot instead recommended strengthening the position of the veterinary practitioner as gatekeeper.