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http://www.farmtalking.com/news_landwriter.html
BELEAGUERED VETS WARN GOVERNMENT AGAINST MORE INTERFERENCE
Britain's vets have laid into the Government over its policies on animal disease, welfare and delivery of veterinary medicines.
Opening the British Veterinary' Association's annual congress in Edinburgh, president Peter Jinman said the industry had been under siege, not least over prescription and dispensing medicines, with vets virtually accused by the OFT of operating a complex monopoly against the public interest.
But at the same time, the Government's Animal Health and Welfare Strategy described vets as the corner stone of its future policy.
"So much for joined up Government thinking," said Mr Jinman.
"Yet who else can deliver the knowledge, understanding, integrity and skill that will be required for the delivery of such a strategy other than the dedicated, vocationally motivated, veterinary profession, whose universally recognised competencies will be the bedrock on which a strategy can be built and realised?"
On TB, Mr Jinman said: "Despite the considerable political clout of the badger we remain concerned that Government policy on Bovine TB seems to be based on tolerance and control of the disease, rather than a policy aimed ultimately at its eradication.
"Tolerance of any animal disease has never been an option as far as the veterinary profession is concerned."
Mr Jinman also questiond the absence of any mention of animals from the recent consultation on a draft Civil Contingencies bill.
"The veterinary profession has no doubt that the best way to prepare for the possibility of a bioterrorist attack is to strengthen existing surveillance in order to protect the country from bioterrorism and/or the next novel or exotic disease," he said.
He said with the future viability of large animal practice by no means assured, vets awaited the outcome of the House of Commons EFRA Committee inquiry into the provision of veterinary services in rural areas "with considerable interest" especially as a recent British Cattle Veterinary Association survey found that that nearly 40 per cent of practices currently involved in farm work "were considering their future".
"The right to practise veterinary surgery is balanced against the responsibilities of the profession to do so by acing professionally and with utmost integrity," said Mr Jinman.
"There is, however, another responsibility and that is for the public through Government to ensure that the veterinary profession is put in the position where it can properly discharge that duty.
"Unreasonable interference is in danger of turning our profession, into just another business and it is to be hoped the Government doesn't realise too late the delicate balance that exists between protection of the public interest and over-regulation that acts to the detriment of the profession, then the public and thereby the animals under our care."