MAVIS Hub Edition 124

Question 1

Enforcement

Accepted Answer

Enforcement policy for animal medicine

Animal medicine seizure notice: Products shipped from the USA stopped at Belfast Depot

Animal medicine seizure notice: Products shipped from Kenya stopped at Heathrow Airport

Question 2

AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance)

Accepted Answer

Policy and Communications

The FAO published a Case Study report written by the VMD and stakeholders detailing the UK’s reduction in sales and use of antibiotics for food-producing animals in September 2022. This report details how the UK successfully implemented measures to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics in farming and achieved the halving antibiotic sales in animals since 2014, in the words of farmers, vets and government and industry representatives. The report has been warmly received by stakeholders who have shown their support on social media.

In June 2022, VMD Head of AMR Kitty Healey gave evidence to the Science and Technology Committee at a one-off evidence session on Antimicrobial Resistance. Following the oral evidence session, the committee sent a letter to SoS for DHSC on the UK’s government progress against the O’Neill recommendations. DHSC and Defra coordinated a joint comprehensive return to the committee are available.

The current priority of the Policy and Comms team continues to be the continued implementation of animal health-specific aspects of the cross-government UK AMR National Action Plan (2019-2024). Work is also underway on the development of the next five year National Action Plan (2024-2029). It is anticipated that this plan will be jointly held by Defra and DHSC.

VARSS

In November 2022, the UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales Surveillance report (UK-VARSS 2021) will be published.

DARC

The Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination (DARC) group held a meeting on 22 September. The meeting included an update on recent findings from across the UK in AMR in bacteria of importance to animal and public health. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in November 2022. The minutes from previous meetings are available.

Question 3

Inspections

Accepted Answer

During the period from 01/07/22 to 30/09/22 the Distribution and Supply Chain Inspection Section carried out a total of 288 inspections of retail and feed business premises to assess their compliance with the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013. We have restarted on-site inspections, however, due to the ongoing pandemic we are still carrying out some remote assessments where we believe they are appropriate.

Retail Premises

We inspected 245 retail premises (veterinary practice premises and SQP retailers) and the compliance ratings for these inspections were as follows (5 being the highest, 1 being the lowest):

Rating	No. of premises	Percentage
5	115	47%
4	104	42%
3	17	7%
2	5	2%
1	4	2%

The most common deficiencies that required corrective action, which were all observed in veterinary practice premises, were:

Controlled Drug (CD) Registers not maintained as required
Broach dates exceeded or not recorded
Controlled Drug/Restricted products – incorrect details recorded at usage/supply

The requirements for retailers are published on Gov.UK

Feed Business Operator premises

We inspected 43 Feed Business Operator (FeBO) premises and the compliance ratings for these inspections were as follows (5 being the highest, 1 being the lowest):