The Animal Health Distributors Association’s annual conference returned to Birmingham this week after a three-year break, providing an extensive programme of seminars and workshops led by key figures in the animal health and welfare industry.

The annual two-day event covered topics related to management of farm, equine and companion animals.

In the keynote address on Monday, John Millward, head of the Inspections and Enforcement Division at the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), gave an insight into the upcoming consultation of the new Veterinary Medicines Regualtions.

Alongside the extensive speaker programme, which included Dr Alison Pyatt (VMD), Dave Bartley (Moredun Research Institute) and Jonathan Statham (Animal Health and Welfare Board for England), representatives from around 50 leading animal health companies including veterinary medicine manufacturers and suppliers, plus industry groups such as AMTRA, COWS, SCOPS and VMD, exhibited their products and services.

The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Working for Positive Change’ and the programme on day one included workshops on the topic of responsible prescribing, including a closer look at the prescribing process, faecal egg counting and animal medicine planning.

Bryan Lovegrove, AHDA secretary general, said: “AHDA’s main purpose is to support SQPs in their role, working with other industry organisations and bodies to support their right to sell and supply the range of prescription animal medicines across all sectors.

“In raising awareness of the challenges of anthelmintic resistance, and by focussing on it in detail at our conference, we hope to bring some of these areas of focus to life, encouraging conversation and engagement among those directly involved in the prescribing process in order to help the end users – their customers – better understand the topic.”