When it comes to the often vexed question "What's eating you ?". The questioner will more often than not get a lot more than he bargained for in the answer. Usually at least one flea in one or both ears. But it is still a much asked question  despite being fraught with danger to the one curious enough to ask it. Brave soul. Hardy man, Hale fellow. 

What then of the man who wonders what it is that currently exercises the minds of an entire nation ? Who does he get in touch with ? You could stand outside a pub on a Friday night and ask a statistical sample of the evacuees what it is that is on their minds...... I dare you !. You could try the same experiment outside a Church, Chapel, Mosque, Synagogue or other place of worship. But I still don't give much for your chances of survival. So what to do then ? I know, the papers. Go to the 'Letters to The Editor' and there you have it. A fair cross-section
of the ramblings and rantings of an irate populace. The cause and effect rule can be seen
time and again. Longer pub hours - a deluge of protest to the editor. Shorter hours - Ditto.
Increase the speed limit; decrease the speed limit; increase blood alcohol limits; decrease
blood alcohol limits .... one way or another, the pens of the nation will be scratching
busily for days, if not weeks on whatever subject it is that currently irks the collective
consciousness.

But I note so far no scriptural objections to the latest ministerial order granting a mail order licence allowing the sale of animal health products in a fashion heretofore considered not only abhorrent but also unsafe and totally at variance with the letter and spirit of the Animal Health 

Regulations. I don't need to remind people how long it took to draft these regulations. It took a long time. It took a lot of hours. The time taken was long. The care taken was comparable to that taken over the ten commandments (remember these ?). We are talking about due care and consideration here, to say the least. And now, at the end all that, it would appear that a loophole has been found in relation to prohibited "Save under licence granted by the Minister". Now far be it from me to suggest that the Minister (peace be upon him) or his agents (rot their
bowels) did not give due care and consideration to that application for a mail order licence when it was presented to them, but I do have a question: It there an application form or does one just use one's initiative ? Silly question really if you think about it. How could there be an application form for something that cannot be granted?

I was going to spend some time drawing up a proposal for an outline application form with large blank spaces to be filled in explaining why I am so suitable a candidate for the
granting of a licence. Iwould have had spaces where my bona fides would have been  verified and rubber-stamped, my proposals for safeguarding end users, animals and third parties, (consumers to you and me) would have been allotted more space to be filled in fastidiously. Then I thought, wait a minute. Let's try to direct route, a good old fashioned letter to "The man ...... Dear Joe, I could do that. Go on then. Gis a licence mate.
 

Article published in Irish Farmers Journal 24th October 1998

MAIL ORDER DRUGS CRITICISED

The Department of Agriculture's granting of a mail order licenceto sell animal health products has sent shock waves through the sector. 
Pat McCarthy, MD of Co-op Animal Health (CAHL) hit out angrily at the new development when speaking this week at a conference organised by the newly formed Animal Health Distributors.
He said that the Department had misinterpreted the Animal Medicines Regulations in granting the mail order licence. The Department had taken travelling vans off the road but yet had approved mail order sales where the vendor cannot directly advise the drug users and the purchaser cannot report adverse reactions from drugs.
 

Pat McCarthy said that the 400 people who had been trained in the handling and distribution of animal health products now find their position undermined by mail order business. 
The CAHL boss's stance was backed by other speakers including Paschal Gibbons incoming President of the Irish Veterinary Union and Rory Culliton of Pharmachem. 
Paschal Gibbons also called for inclusion of mastitis tubes as POM (Prescription Only Medicine)as their overuse by farmers was leading to antibiotic resistance. 
However, he did not get the backing of the animal health companies at the meeting who pointed out that in the UK, the use of mastitis tubes per cow was higher than in Ireland, even though vets had control of the business. 
The rules governing the sales of reproduction aids such as cattle coils, sheep sponges etc., may soon be relaxed.
The industry is pressing to include these products under a new POM(E) label where they
can be bought from pharmacists without direct veterinary supervision.

Pharmacists who have used the Mailshot have been very impressed with the response.
To be effective the objective of each mailshot should be clear - a thank you for business,
information on new products or keeping in touch with clients who might be slipping away. The challenge of maintaining the relationship with the customer is growing - this can provide an interim measure to communicate with a number of customers at the same time. Which customer? Identify a specific customer group and if in doubt narrow the group. If the customer gets a letter that is inappropriate it can undo the good. Get the staff to pool their ideas on the letter or one of the staff might take responsibility for compiling the ideas. 

The message should be brief and certainly confined to one page. A call to action can be
included in the letter or added as a PS. - This might include some seasonal offers.

Plan now if you intend to send mailshot and diary a date for the process. On completion of the
mailshot observe response in the file. Plan next mailshot - diary a date.
PS.                  Keep paragraphs short
                        Use Times Roman type - easier on the eye
                        Italics can highlight a key message
                        Do not justify to the right
 
 

Article purblished in Irish Farmers Journal 24th October 1998
 

The Irish veterinary union have had more than their knuckles rapped by the Competition
Authority. 

It is now fully clear that a scale of minimum fees cannot be recommended by the Veterinary Trade Union, nor can the withholding of clinical services be operated where farmers refuse to pay recommended fees. 

It is a pity that the veterinary profession has allowed itself to go down the route of registering its representative body as a trade union. Many of its policies are now seen as simply a drive to increase income regardless of the circumstances. 

It is refreshing at the Grassland Sheep Meeting to hear Michael O'Doherty of UCD refer to the duty on both farmer and vet to prevent and cure animal suffering. 

In his talk he acknowledged the anomalies of where a veterinary visit and medicines administration was costing more that the animal was worth. 

Another more sensible way of getting medicines to where they are needed was necessary, he felt. 

If only his attitude was more widespread among negotiators the relationship between farmers and vets at the top of their organisations might more fully reflect the mutual on-the-ground respect.
 

A recent EU conference called the Copenhagen Microbial Threat conference has provoked
further activity regarding the level of antibiotic usage in animals. This is immediately affecting growth promoters in pig feed (still used in Ireland) but also raising the wider issue of antibiotic residues and transfer of resistance. 

The Danish Agriculture Minister expressed dissatisfaction to the EU Agricultural Council. In Scandinavia there is a much more strident view recommending compulsory or voluntary bans on the use of antibiotics in animals. 

There is an association (hotly disputed) in Denmark between a human's death from infection with Salmonella typhimurium DT104 and the spread of antibiotic resistance. The EU is awaiting the report of a multidisciplinary committee on antibiotic resistance. 

Germany's Agriculture Minister has indicated a readiness to ban growth promoters if the EU does not move on this. The UK's National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) has warned of the risk of moving from licensed antibiotic products, which have been on the market for over 40 years in favour of materials where the risks are unknown, simply because they are natural and new. NOAH asserts that antibiotic resistance relates to overuse in humans. Roger Cook of NOAH pointed out that overuse was unlikely to occur in the livestock sector: "Animal medicine is 'private' medicines and farm economics preclude unnecessary expense". 

He also pointed out that neither E.coli 0157 nor Salmonella enteritidis are resistant to antibiotics, and although S.typhimurium DT104 is resistant to five antibiotics which are used in both humans and animals, it is not resistant to antibiotics used in animals as digestive enhances. Stringent licensing controls and antibiotic residue testing also serve to protect the consumer.
 

A recent conference on Mastitis in the UK discussed the current views on mastitis treatment
Points made
- great emphasis need to be placed on dry cow treatment.
- some US farmers allowing some mastitic cows in lactation to cure themselves
- some detractors implicate dry cow therapy in spread of antibiotic resistance.
- treating infections to achieve a bacteriological cure is difficult but can be achieved.
- current practice for mastitis treatment often results in a 90% resolution of the disease but
  only  a 20-80% bacteriological cure.
- "The limited evidence on resistance patterns in mastitis pathogens indicates a decrease 
    in antibacterial resistance over recent years " (Dr. J. Eric Hillerton, UK's Institute of Animal
    Health).
- an animal that continually presents mastitis poses a threat to other cows and may not have an
   immune system adequate to overcome the infection.
- "Learning to assess immune function may offer some insight into therapeutic success"
  (Dr. Erskine, Michigan University).
- In the last 8 years 20% of Irish farmers report having used homeopathic remedies for 
  mastitis, almost half claim they have worked. Dr. John Egan said scientific trials showed
  no significant efficacy in reducing infections or non-specific subclinical mastitis. Work
  on nosodes showed no significant differences in the number of new cases. One comment
  suggested that commercially available homeopathic remedies were bound to fail, that
  homeopathy should be based on an individual diagnosis.
- cows with mastitis are in pain - treatable with non steroidal anti-inflammatories
- improved methods required to reduce pain and return udder to normal function as quickly
   as possible

What then of the man who wonders what it is that currently exercises the minds of an entire nation ? Who does he get in touch with ? You could stand outside a pub on a Friday night and ask a statistical sample of the evacuees what it is that is on their minds...... I dare you !. You could try the same experiment outside a Church, Chapel, Mosque, Synagogue or other place of worship. But I still don't give much for your chances of survival. So what to do then ? I know, the papers. Go to the 'Letters to The Editor' and there you have it. A fair cross-section
of the ramblings and rantings of an irate populace. The cause and effect rule can be seen
time and again. Longer pub hours - a deluge of protest to the editor. Shorter hours - Ditto.
Increase the speed limit; decrease the speed limit; increase blood alcohol limits; decrease
blood alcohol limits .... one way or another, the pens of the nation will be scratching
busily for days, if not weeks on whatever subject it is that currently irks the collective
consciousness.

But I note so far no scriptural objections to the latest ministerial order granting a mail order licence allowing the sale of animal health products in a fashion heretofore considered not only abhorrent but also unsafe and totally at variance with the letter and spirit of the Animal Health 

Regulations. I don't need to remind people how long it took to draft these regulations. It took a long time. It took a lot of hours. The time taken was long. The care taken was comparable to that taken over the ten commandments (remember these ?). We are talking about due care and consideration here, to say the least. And now, at the end all that, it would appear that a loophole has been found in relation to prohibited "Save under licence granted by the Minister". Now far be it from me to suggest that the Minister (peace be upon him) or his agents (rot their
bowels) did not give due care and consideration to that application for a mail order licence when it was presented to them, but I do have a question: It there an application form or does one just use one's initiative ? Silly question really if you think about it. How could there be an application form for something that cannot be granted?

I was going to spend some time drawing up a proposal for an outline application form with large blank spaces to be filled in explaining why I am so suitable a candidate for the
granting of a licence. Iwould have had spaces where my bona fides would have been  verified and rubber-stamped, my proposals for safeguarding end users, animals and third parties, (consumers to you and me) would have been allotted more space to be filled in fastidiously. Then I thought, wait a minute. Let's try to direct route, a good old fashioned letter to "The man ...... Dear Joe, I could do that. Go on then. Gis a licence mate.
 

Article published in Irish Farmers Journal 24th October 1998

MAIL ORDER DRUGS CRITICISED

The Department of Agriculture's granting of a mail order licenceto sell animal health products has sent shock waves through the sector. 
Pat McCarthy, MD of Co-op Animal Health (CAHL) hit out angrily at the new development when speaking this week at a conference organised by the newly formed Animal Health Distributors.
He said that the Department had misinterpreted the Animal Medicines Regulations in granting the mail order licence. The Department had taken travelling vans off the road but yet had approved mail order sales where the vendor cannot directly advise the drug users and the purchaser cannot report adverse reactions from drugs.
 

Pat McCarthy said that the 400 people who had been trained in the handling and distribution of animal health products now find their position undermined by mail order business. 
The CAHL boss's stance was backed by other speakers including Paschal Gibbons incoming President of the Irish Veterinary Union and Rory Culliton of Pharmachem. 
Paschal Gibbons also called for inclusion of mastitis tubes as POM (Prescription Only Medicine)as their overuse by farmers was leading to antibiotic resistance. 
However, he did not get the backing of the animal health companies at the meeting who pointed out that in the UK, the use of mastitis tubes per cow was higher than in Ireland, even though vets had control of the business. 
The rules governing the sales of reproduction aids such as cattle coils, sheep sponges etc., may soon be relaxed.
The industry is pressing to include these products under a new POM(E) label where they
can be bought from pharmacists without direct veterinary supervision.

Pharmacists who have used the Mailshot have been very impressed with the response.
To be effective the objective of each mailshot should be clear - a thank you for business,
information on new products or keeping in touch with clients who might be slipping away. The challenge of maintaining the relationship with the customer is growing - this can provide an interim measure to communicate with a number of customers at the same time. Which customer? Identify a specific customer group and if in doubt narrow the group. If the customer gets a letter that is inappropriate it can undo the good. Get the staff to pool their ideas on the letter or one of the staff might take responsibility for compiling the ideas. 

The message should be brief and certainly confined to one page. A call to action can be
included in the letter or added as a PS. - This might include some seasonal offers.

Plan now if you intend to send mailshot and diary a date for the process. On completion of the
mailshot observe response in the file. Plan next mailshot - diary a date.
PS.                  Keep paragraphs short
                        Use Times Roman type - easier on the eye
                        Italics can highlight a key message
                        Do not justify to the right
 
 

Article purblished in Irish Farmers Journal 24th October 1998
 

The Irish veterinary union have had more than their knuckles rapped by the Competition
Authority. 

It is now fully clear that a scale of minimum fees cannot be recommended by the Veterinary Trade Union, nor can the withholding of clinical services be operated where farmers refuse to pay recommended fees. 

It is a pity that the veterinary profession has allowed itself to go down the route of registering its representative body as a trade union. Many of its policies are now seen as simply a drive to increase income regardless of the circumstances. 

It is refreshing at the Grassland Sheep Meeting to hear Michael O'Doherty of UCD refer to the duty on both farmer and vet to prevent and cure animal suffering. 

In his talk he acknowledged the anomalies of where a veterinary visit and medicines administration was costing more that the animal was worth. 

Another more sensible way of getting medicines to where they are needed was necessary, he felt. 

If only his attitude was more widespread among negotiators the relationship between farmers and vets at the top of their organisations might more fully reflect the mutual on-the-ground respect.
 

A recent EU conference called the Copenhagen Microbial Threat conference has provoked
further activity regarding the level of antibiotic usage in animals. This is immediately affecting growth promoters in pig feed (still used in Ireland) but also raising the wider issue of antibiotic residues and transfer of resistance. 

The Danish Agriculture Minister expressed dissatisfaction to the EU Agricultural Council. In Scandinavia there is a much more strident view recommending compulsory or voluntary bans on the use of antibiotics in animals. 

There is an association (hotly disputed) in Denmark between a human's death from infection with Salmonella typhimurium DT104 and the spread of antibiotic resistance. The EU is awaiting the report of a multidisciplinary committee on antibiotic resistance. 

Germany's Agriculture Minister has indicated a readiness to ban growth promoters if the EU does not move on this. The UK's National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) has warned of the risk of moving from licensed antibiotic products, which have been on the market for over 40 years in favour of materials where the risks are unknown, simply because they are natural and new. NOAH asserts that antibiotic resistance relates to overuse in humans. Roger Cook of NOAH pointed out that overuse was unlikely to occur in the livestock sector: "Animal medicine is 'private' medicines and farm economics preclude unnecessary expense". 

He also pointed out that neither E.coli 0157 nor Salmonella enteritidis are resistant to antibiotics, and although S.typhimurium DT104 is resistant to five antibiotics which are used in both humans and animals, it is not resistant to antibiotics used in animals as digestive enhances. Stringent licensing controls and antibiotic residue testing also serve to protect the consumer.
 

A recent conference on Mastitis in the UK discussed the current views on mastitis treatment
Points made
- great emphasis need to be placed on dry cow treatment.
- some US farmers allowing some mastitic cows in lactation to cure themselves
- some detractors implicate dry cow therapy in spread of antibiotic resistance.
- treating infections to achieve a bacteriological cure is difficult but can be achieved.
- current practice for mastitis treatment often results in a 90% resolution of the disease but
  only  a 20-80% bacteriological cure.
- "The limited evidence on resistance patterns in mastitis pathogens indicates a decrease 
    in antibacterial resistance over recent years " (Dr. J. Eric Hillerton, UK's Institute of Animal
    Health).
- an animal that continually presents mastitis poses a threat to other cows and may not have an
   immune system adequate to overcome the infection.
- "Learning to assess immune function may offer some insight into therapeutic success"
  (Dr. Erskine, Michigan University).
- In the last 8 years 20% of Irish farmers report having used homeopathic remedies for 
  mastitis, almost half claim they have worked. Dr. John Egan said scientific trials showed
  no significant efficacy in reducing infections or non-specific subclinical mastitis. Work
  on nosodes showed no significant differences in the number of new cases. One comment
  suggested that commercially available homeopathic remedies were bound to fail, that
  homeopathy should be based on an individual diagnosis.
- cows with mastitis are in pain - treatable with non steroidal anti-inflammatories
- improved methods required to reduce pain and return udder to normal function as quickly
   as possible