Mar 11
21
The Use of Medicines, Vaccines, Their Safety and Their Recording in Ostrich Farming
What is required in recording of all medicines used in the ostrich farming unit. The Veterinary Health Plan should follow the legal requirements of the country in which the business is operating and must include any additional requirements imposed by the importing country of the buyer.
This section of the plan should contain written procedures that clearly define such things as:
- The safe disposal of pharmaceutical waste such as needles and other sharps. The procedures should be laid down in strict accordance with the relevant waste disposal regulations.
- All medicines are labelled and stored in accordance with the label instructions and are kept in a secure, lockable store that is safe from animals, children and birds.
- Location of the medicine store, such as it should be separate from food producing areas
- A nominated person with responsibility for the management of the medicine store and maintenance of appropriate records for stock control purposes.
- Any medicines used are licensed for use in the country of production, permitted by the country of export if meat sold to a different country, permitted by the customer and applied in accordance with legislation of the country of production, where applicable importing country and any customer requirements.
- All personnel involved in the administration of animal medicines are fully trained and competent to do so.
- Recording of any “off label” use of medicines.
Off-label use of medicines is the use of a product not licensed for the specie treated. This is very common in ostrich farming as there are very few, if any, approved medicines for ostrich in most countries. The laws will vary in different countries, but generally, this is allowed provided the medicine has a licence for food-producing species with an approved meat withdrawal period. Check the law within your country and any country the unit exports meat to.
The following are the type of information that requires recording when any type of medication is administered whether it is routine treatments or individual events. Routine treatments include all treatments such as routine vaccinations, worming, feather spraying and tick control.
- the date treatment commenced
- the animal and/or pen it is used on
- their identification and location
- the condition or disease treated
- the medicine used
- the batch number
- the dose rate given
- the number of days that the medicine is used
- the withdrawal period in days
- the date at which the withdrawal period expires (the date of clearance)
- a note of who has administered the medicine
- details of all medicines purchased
Even with the best management practices, there will always be a requirement for certain treatments – some of these are imposed by law or buyer requirements. The Veterinary Health Plan clearly defines the procedures for managing the medications and names those responsible for ensuring accurate records are maintained in ostrich farming.
