ACVM animal welfare concerns

One of the risk areas managed under the ACVM Act is animal welfare. Animal welfare concern is defined in terms of unnecessary pain or distress. Products may be toxic or cause undesirable side effects, resulting in pain or distress. However, the benefits to the animal may be sufficient to offset some pain or distress. Therefore, consideration of trade name products from an animal welfare perspective will always require a balancing of harms to benefits.

This is particularly true in regard to regulatory control of the efficacy of trade name products. Regulatory control of efficacy can be justified if failure of a product to do what is claimed would result in the treated animal suffering significant pain or distress. On the other hand, regulatory control of efficacy cannot be justified if there are no ill effects to the treated animal when the product does not work.

Welfare concern is partially based on the ability of persons to observe clinical signs and take action to alleviate pain or distress, and partially on the ability to take the time to choose between products or take advice on products, without compromising the welfare of the animal.

To avoid unwarranted regulatory intervention, clinical signs of pain or distress must be at least moderate to prompt welfare concern. Conditions for which the clinical signs are no more than mild pain or distress and for which there are alternative products available would not prompt regulatory animal welfare concerns, since judgements can be made or advice taken about the appropriateness of a particular product for a particular animal.

MAF has developed a perspective on managing efficacy of products for animal welfare reasons. It has also created a list of conditions that it considers are of sufficient animal welfare concern to require products to treat those conditions to be effective. The perspective and list of conditions can be viewed on the ACVM Group website, or a copy obtained from:

Erin Daldry
Technical Advisor
ACVM Group
PO Box 2526, WELLINGTON
Fax: 04 460 8771
Email: daldrye@maf.govt.nz

Comments on the MAF perspective or the list of conditions can be sent to Erin Daldry.