96. Our investigations have shown that the Government's present and proposed approval procedures for vaccines and veterinary medicines may result in some adverse effects on turkey welfare. We share the concern expressed by the industry and animal protection societies that welfare may be adversely affected because some apparently efficacious medications are not approved more quickly. It is also possible that new products may not be developed because of the high cost of generating data.
97. The topic was covered in evidence given to the House of Commons Agriculture Committee last year and the Committee's report is available. Amongst other things, this report recommended that "a category of provisional licence should be created to cope with sudden epidemics of disease within the poultry industry". With regard to vaccines, speed of approval is essential in the face of a disease outbreak and this would be greatly assisted by a system of provisional licences. It cannot be right, for example, that vaccines which have not yet been approved for use in this country may be administered to turkeys in other European countries from where we import turkey meat. We are aware that a system of provisional licences has recently been introduced by the Government and we hope that this and the new EU arrangement for mutual recognition of market authorisations will help to improve availability.
98. We have been told that in the application for product licences by pharmaceutical companies, turkeys are considered a minor species. Approval is usually sought for chickens and only exceptionally for turkeys. We understand this is partly because the data required for licensing for each species are very expensive to obtain and the process is not usually cost-effective for minority species such as turkeys. It is hoped that improvements can be made to the licensing procedures which will encourage the timely application for new or existing products which would be effective for turkeys as well as other species.
99. It is essential that the health and welfare of our flocks are not adversely affected by limiting the availability of vaccines or therapeutic medicines which are known to be effective and do not pose a food safety hazard. Ways must therefore be found to achieve rapid availability of vaccines and medicines to deal with emergencies such as major outbreaks of disease, and also to increase the range of vaccines and medicines approved for use on turkeys gnerally.