Vets must look at product stewardship

 “There is a need for increased food but there’s also antimicrobial resistance; there’s a lot of resistance in our ecto and endo parasiticides,” Hosking told the AgCarm conference in Auckland.

“From a sustainability point of view we need to look at how we put those products out in the market and how they are placed there. And is the appropriate stewardship going along with that?” 

The industry has to lift the game in this area, says Hoskings, who formerly worked as a dairy veterinarian in Waikato before taking over the Franklin practice.

“There are some very good examples of stewardship of products but there are also other examples, especially when people come into the market and they don’t have a lot of background.

“We have seen instances of anthelmintics coming to the market and the advice is not right and out of date. It is adding confusion to the market.”

The profession also needs to have input into the regulations and how products coming to the market were controlled, Hosking says. “I know there is a balance of getting the novel products to market but there’s a balance of protecting those products that we have.”

While he is in favour of free market competition, he questions whether competition should be the main basis of regulation in this product area where sustainability issues are paramount.

“Is it driving the right market conditions? I would argue that having cheaper penicillin in the marketplace is not actually the right driver for us. One, it is just going to increase the amount of antibiotics being used and, two, I would argue that having cheaper penicillin available for lame cows will result in an increase in lame cows in New Zealand. 

Farmers have many preventative options for reducing disease in their herds, Hosking says. “If the treatment side of things is so cheap that will become the default position. Farmers will choose treatment before they start investing in preventative measures.

“It is important for us to be looking at this. We need the R&D companies to provide us with the products and the tools we need for the future.”