Overview of the Essential Veterinary Medicines List
for food producing animals
Essential veterinary medicines are those that satisfy the primary healthcare and welfare needs of food-producing animals, including veterinary medicines and vaccines. This definition was developed by the World Veterinary Association (WVA) and Brooke Action for Working Horses and Donkeys, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Essential medicines list and the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s (WSAVA) equivalent essential medicines list for cats and dogs. In this context food-producing animals include animals who play a critical role in food production value chains (classed as working livestock).
This list of essential veterinary medicines is presented following development by global groups of species-specific experts. Experts were selected for the groups with a view to ensuring an even geographical spread and both practical and academic credentials. Each species list has been reviewed by an external global expert group relevant to the species. Finally the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Antimicrobial Resistance and Veterinary Products Department has reviewed these lists with a specific view to alignment with WOAH recommendations on prudent antimicrobial use (their statement is added below):
WOAH welcomes the creation of this list and continues to work with both partners for its further development.
The list of essential medicines is not intended to define exactly what medicines should be always available in every clinic or field kit, but that veterinarians should be able to access these (medicines) within their health system if required for the prevention and treatment of specific diseases and conditions. The list is intended to be a guide for countries or regional authorities to adopt or adapt, depending on local priority conditions and treatment guidelines, to enable the development or updating of national essential medicine lists. The list can also support registration, streamlined procurement and distribution of sustainable sources of quality-assured veterinary medicines.
This list is not intended to be a formulary or compendium of all veterinary medicines. Many countries globally will have access to a far more extensive range of registered products. Essential medicines are only those needed to provide primary health care.
The definitions of essential veterinary medicines were based on a similar list of essential medicines in human medicine by the WHO and the equivalent list for cats and dogs made by the WSAVA.
The presence of a medicine in the essential medicines list carries no assurance as to the pharmaceutical quality of products containing that medicine. It is the responsibility of the relevant national or regional drug regulatory authority to ensure that each product is of appropriate pharmaceutical quality and that, when relevant, bioequivalent products can be interchangeable. The list does not include information on dosing regimens, drug interactions, contraindications, or potential adverse side-effects. It does not include information on monitoring, record-keeping, disposal, or storage of the medicines.
Essential veterinary medicines are presented alphabetically in this online database. The filtering options allow specific species and specific medicines search. You can also type search the name of a medicine.
This tool will always be available for free use and updated in regular intervals.
For questions, feedback and suggestions please contact evml@worldvet.org
The essential medicines on this list were selected with due regard to disease prevalence and public health relevance, evidence of efficacy and safety and comparative cost-effectiveness. These medicines should allow veterinarians to provide proper preventive care and treatment of the most frequent and important diseases in food-producing animals whilst maintaining high animal welfare standards. These medicines are unlikely to be replaceable by other medicines and their absence could compromise public/animal health and welfare. This is a global list and those developing national lists adapted from this will need to consider their country’s health risk profile when defining which medicines are core or complementary.
The core list presents a list of minimum medicine needs for primary healthcare services, listing the most efficacious, safe and cost-effective medicines for priority conditions. Priority conditions are selected based on current and estimated future public/animal health relevance, and potential for safe and cost-effective treatment.
The complementary list presents essential medicines for priority diseases, for which specialized diagnostic or monitoring facilities, and/or specialist medical care, and/or specialist training are needed. In case of doubt, medicines may also be listed as complementary based on consistently higher cost or less attractive cost-effectiveness in a variety of settings and wide availability in the profession.
Essential Veterinary Medicines List (EVML) © 2024 by World Veterinary Association (WVA) and The Brooke is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
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