{"id":597651,"date":"2025-11-27T18:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/597651\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T18:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:34:15","slug":"vets-in-north-worried-at-post-brexit-rule-changes-on-medicines-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/597651\/","title":{"rendered":"Vets in North worried at post-Brexit rule changes on medicines \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland<\/a> is facing \u201csignificant risk and uncertainty to animal health, to farming<\/a>, to pet owners\u201d because of post-Brexit<\/a> changes to the supply of veterinary medicines which come into force on January 1st, a Stormont<\/a> committee has heard. <\/p>\n

Mark Little, from the North of Ireland Veterinary Association, said \u201cmajor regulatory change\u201d was approaching \u201cvery soon\u201d, but there was \u201calmost incomplete\u201d information.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blinkers are still on for vets on the ground, communication and guidance has been limited as well, and [there is] growing evidence that maybe the scale of discontinuation is greater than the [UK government\u2019s] Veterinary Medicine Directorate is telling us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under the post-Brexit agreement between the European Union<\/a> and UK, Northern Ireland must follow EU rules on veterinary medicines, rather than the rules which apply in Britain. <\/p>\n

A grace period, which allows veterinary medicines authorised in Britain to continue to be supplied in Northern Ireland, expires on December 31st. <\/p>\n

From January 1st, veterinary medicines from Britain can only be supplied to Northern Ireland if these meet the full EU regulatory requirements or in exceptional circumstances. <\/p>\n

Mr Little and his colleague in the veterinary association, Kirsten Dunbar, outlined their concerns to Stormont\u2019s Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs on Thursday. <\/p>\n

These include increased cost, the discontinuation of products, the additional burden placed on vets and the potential to increase the resistance to veterinary medicines. <\/p>\n

They also highlighted the uncertainty and lack of information, saying that with just over a month to go until the changes, they did not know which products would be discontinued or how two UK government schemes to ensure the supply of medicines would work. <\/p>\n

Though the scale of the impact is not yet known, they warned that \u201cearly signals already exceed the UK government\u2019s modelling and their research, which assumes that only a small amount of products will be affected\u201d.<\/p>\n

The committee heard how many pharmaceutical companies in the EU that previously used UK warehouses had redirected that trade through the Republic to avoid additional regulatory and testing requirements in the UK. <\/p>\n

Aside from those exceptions, \u201cevery veterinary medicine supply into Northern Ireland \u2026 is completely redirected from GB now \u2013 it has to be,\u201d Mr Little said. <\/p>\n

Asked if the changes could lead to increased levels of animal suffering, Ms Dunbar said the highest risk was regarding vaccines. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have maybe three different vaccines, but only one remains, and there\u2019s a problem with the production \u2026 that could be critical,\u201d she said, citing examples such as salmonella, \u201cwhich could have an impact on human health as well\u201d. <\/p>\n

Ms Dunbar made a number of recommendations, including for \u201cNorthern Ireland-specific, plain language operational guidance for vets, farmers, horse owners and pet owners as soon as possible, so that practices and vets can prepare in a consistent way\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also called for the creation of an implementation co-ordination group to support the transition. <\/p>\n

Separately on Thursday, members of the House of Lords Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee wrote to the UK\u2019s EU relations minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, expressing \u201cserious concerns\u201d over the end of the grace period for veterinary medicines on December 31st. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland is facing \u201csignificant risk and uncertainty to animal health, to farming, to pet owners\u201d because of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,54676,1144,28984,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-597651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-house-of-lords","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-stormont-assembly","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115623104649718702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}