MAVIS Hub Edition 125

Question 1

Product News

Accepted Answer

Anesketin 100 mg/ml solution for injection - Product defect recall alert

Question 2

Enforcement

Accepted Answer

Animal medicine seizure notice: Parcels shipped from India to premises in County Antrim

Animal medicine seizure notice: Parcels shipped from China to a premises in County Antrim

Animal medicine seizure notice: TMP Breeding at the Racing Pigeon Show, Doncaster

Animal medicine seizure notice: Triple Aces Canine Care Centre, Pitsea, Essex

Animal medicine seizure notice: Parcel shipped from Australia to residential premises in County Tyrone

Question 3

AMR (Antimicrobial Resistance)

Accepted Answer

Policy and Communications

Members of the VMD AMR team attended the 3rd Ministerial meeting on AMR in Oman in November. The Conference, which was themed “AMR: From Policy to One Health Action”, welcomed representatives from 44 countries. The UK delegation was led by UK Special Envoy on AMR, Dame Sally Davies. The main outcome of the conference was the Muscat Manifesto, which set targets on use of antibiotics in humans and animals and outlines commitments to develop and implement National Actions plans and strengthen AMR and AMU surveillance.

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). The UK government have begun the process of developing the next 5-Year AMR National Action Plan, which will run from 2024-2029.
A Call for Evidence ran from 23 November 2022 to 20 January 2023.

For this year’s World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2022, VMD created a twitter campaign to highlight responsible use of antibiotics in animals and supported the first ever Antibiotic Amnesty for vet practices, encouraging pet owners to return their unused or out of date antibiotics to their vet practices. We promoted the UK-VARSS 2021 report and the UK FAO case study during the week as well as amplifying content from other government departments and industry stakeholders. We also participated in WHO’s “Go Blue for AMR” by making VMD’s twitter handle blue and published the Reducing Antibiotic Use in Pets on the VMD blog.

Sales, Usage and Stewardship

The latest VARSS report was published in November 2022, which included 2021 antibiotic sales and use data. This showed that:

UK sales of veterinary antibiotics for food-producing animals in 2021 were the lowest recorded to date, at 28.3 mg/kg. This represents a 6% decrease from 2020 and a 55% decrease from 2014
Sales of antibiotics for food producing animals that are highest priority critically important for human medicine, for example, fluoroquinolones, third and fourth generation cephalosporins and polymyxins, accounted for 0.12 mg/kg in 2021, and have reduced for the seventh consecutive year (by 83% overall)
Since data was first published for each sector, significant reductions in antibiotic use have been achieved, including in the pig (-69%), turkey (-81%), broiler (-72%), duck (-89%), laying hen (-50%), gamebird (-55%) and trout (-69%) sectors
In the latest data from 2021, the pig sector reduced their usage to the lowest yet of 87mg/kg, an impressive achievement during what was a challenging year for the industry

Overall, the reductions throughout the livestock sectors demonstrate how antibiotic stewardship has become an important feature of UK farm management.

DARC

The Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination (DARC) group held a meeting on 29 November. The meeting included updates on recent findings from across the UK in AMR in bacteria of importance to animal and public health. Key findings from the 2021 ESPAUR report were presented upon and an update on the upcoming consultation on the Veterinary Medicines Regulations was provided.

The next meeting is scheduled to take place on 9 March 2023. The minutes from the previous meetings are available on GOV.UK

FAO Reference Centre

The VMD continues to partner with the Fleming Fund to deliver training and support to build capacity within countries to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

In partnership with academic institutions in Zambia, the VMD is developing several post-graduate posts to support research on antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial usage within animal health sectors. Projects will aim to develop in-country research capacity in addition to strengthening understanding of antimicrobial usage at the farm level and at the point of access in order to promote responsible use.

Collaborating with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the VMD has been working with country partners to identify and scope their training needs on a range of aspects of veterinary medicines regulations, with a forecasted delivery across 2023.

Question 4

Inspections

Accepted Answer

During the period from 01/10/22 to 31/12/22 the Distribution and Supply Chain Inspection Section carried out a total of 293 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 240 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	108	45%
4	104	43%
3	22	9%
2	5	2%
1	1	1%

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

Broach dates exceeded or not recorded
Controlled Drug (CD) Registers not maintained as required
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 53 Feed Business Operator (FeBO) premises and the compliance ratings for these inspections were as follows (5 being the highest, 1 being the lowest):