[Records and the use of veterinary drugs]

The new Veterinary Drugs Act is in process of development. The final form which this law will take on will probably be clearer by the time of the 1983 annual congress. It can be expected that only registered drugs will then be permissible for use in treatment. A drug is registered when records are provided and found to be adequate, which show that the drug is effective and does not have any injurious side-effects or results in the appearance of residues after normal use. Drawing up a record of this type requires thorough investigation of the drug, in which experimental studies in animals play an important role. The problem of residues does not enter into the matter in the case of veterinary drugs used in companion animals, though beyond this the registration system will not differ markedly from that of other agents. This means that drugs used in human medicine as such are not permissible for use in companion animals. As several of the required data from the records of these drugs will then be available, composing a complete record will not cause any insurmountable problems. The situation is more complicated in the case of homeopathic and allied therapeutic agents.