X Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2018

Animals, like humans, are prone to illness and need medicine to treat and prevent disease. And from indoors-only cats to free-range chickens, all animals benefit from today’s veterinary medicines. Better animal health is an important part of animal welfare. On average, the world spends only about one-fortieth of the amount it devotes to human medicines on animal medicines. But that investment is used to cover animal health innovations for the world’s 24 billion chickens, more than 1 billion cattle and sheep, 750 million pigs and goats, 500 million dogs and 400 million cats. Veterinary drugs are given to animals via feed or drinking water, or by injection.

Veterinary drugs are substances that are made to treat, prevent or diagnose diseases in animals. It’s important to consider that there are the significant biochemical and metabolic differences between humans, dogs and cats – and, indeed, between all mammalian species – that make the design of medicines for use in animals a challenging endeavor:

- Veterinary drug development is complicated for animals that are to enter the human food chain. Hence, the development process for livestock drugs involves long-term toxicity tests in rodents – often encompassing the whole of the natural rodent lifespan – as well as in other mammals, so that farmers and consumers can be wholly confident that the meat, milk or eggs will contain no potentially harmful drugs or metabolites. As the use of veterinary drugs may result in residues of these drugs in animal products like milk, eggs and meat, a lot of countries have established legal limits for residues of veterinary drugs in food. Maximum residue levels (MRLs) for residues of veterinary drugs are set at the EU level. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) evaluates all applications for MRLs. Only veterinary drugs containing pharmacologically active substances for which MRLs have been set (or for which the conclusion was that no MRL is required) are allowed to be authorized for use in food producing animals, and then only for use in those species for which MRLs were set.

- Concerns about the environmental consequences of field run-off must also be taken into account in developing drugs that are to be administered to large numbers of farm animals, such as flukicides for controlling liver fluke in sheep.

- Human safety is also a concern in developing medicines for pets (or ‘companion animals’ as professionals describe them). Drugs must often be administered by untrained pet owners in their homes where they may be accidentally consumed by young children.

- Further difficulties arise from the need to formulate compounds that are palatable to animals, and to devise delivery mechanisms that will work even for animals that may be highly stressed. Each species needs a range of medicinal products that is different in terms of both molecules and formulations.

For all these reasons, veterinary drug development offers challenges that are at least as difficult as those in the development of human drugs. Many of the large pharmaceutical companies nevertheless have, or have had, some involvement in animal health. The medicines they produce are as essential as human drugs: both in supporting vets and livestock farmers to provide a safe, wholesome supply of meat and dairy food, and in supporting vets and pet owners to help companion animals live longer and healthier lives. The time, care, and investment put into the research and development of animal medicines ensures a steady stream of new and innovative products that improve the health and well-being of all of these animals.

Drugs are allowed in organic farming as per veterinary recommendations but alternative medicine is preferred. Preventive use of drugs is forbidden and antibiotics can be used a limited times, with a double withdrawal time. Animal health care is still not sufficiently developed that we can keep livestock healthy without veterinary drugs. In Europe and the USA great progress has been made towards the use of homeopathic veterinary medicine which in many instances has shown its applicability to certain health problems. In Africa ethno-veterinary solutions are also commonly used and to some extent may be effective where an experienced herbalist has been consulted. Much of this is not well documented and verified as effective but a lot of farmers use it with good results.

Scientific research has led to medicines that dramatically improve veterinarians’ ability to prevent pet illnesses and treat those who are sick. Medicines prevent flea and tick infestation, Lyme disease, rabies, diabetes, feline leukemia, and other types of cancers in pets. Veterinarians use diagnostic tests and medical equipment specifically for animals, which leads to better treatments and more options for pet owners.

Research shows that healthy animals are an important factor in providing safer food. Animal medicines are a critical link in the food safety chain, as they represent needed tools for farmers and veterinarians to help to produce healthy animals and to improve the availability of affordable protein.

References:

1. Animal Health Institute [Электронный ресурс]: 2018 Animal Health Institute. – Электронные данные. – Режим доступа: https://ahi.org/about-animal-medicines/ . – Заглавие с экрана. 2. Chemistry World [Электронный ресурс]: 2018 Chemistry World. – Электронные данные. – Режим доступа: https://www.chemistryworld.com/feature/animal-pharm/6431.article .– Заглавие с экрана. 3. Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety [Электронный ресурс]: 2018 Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety. – Электронные данные. – Режим доступа: https://www.bvl.bund.de/EN/05_Veterinary_Drugs/veterinary_node.html . – Заглавие с экрана. 4. Wageningen University & Research [Электронный ресурс]: 2016 Wageningen University & Research. – Электронные данные. – Режим доступа: https://www.wur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Research-Institutes/rikilt/Projects/FS-Legislation-Portal/Veterinary-Drugs-1.htm . – Заглавие с экрана.

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