Use of veterinary antimycotic products in the UK, 1998-2002

The UK Government is committed to promoting the responsible use of antimicrobial products. As part of this commitment, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), an agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, collates and publishes reports detailing the quantities of veterinary antimicrobial products sold by the pharmaceutical companies in the UK. To date, these reports have focussed on antibacterials and antiprotozoals. This paper acts as a baseline by summarising, for the first time, the sales of veterinary antimycotic products in the UK over a five-year-period, 1998-2002, and looks at trends in sales of different groups of products. It is hoped that information of sales of these products will contribute to knowledge of the potential for overall development of antimicrobial resistance in the veterinary field.