daniel chigunwe
Daniel Nemukuyu
Investigations Editor
ANIMAL health is now threatened by expired, counterfeit and unregistered veterinary medicines flooding the market, with reports that the police recently raided a Harare hardware shop and seized truckloads of the prohibited drugs.
The CID Drugs and Narcotics Unit, working with the Council of Veterinary Surgeons and the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, last week raided the Veterinary Medicines General Dealer (also known as Veterinary Distributors) at Westgate Mall and seized three truckloads laden with expired, counterfeit and unregistered veterinary medicines.
Experts say the sale of expired and unregistered drugs was a serious offence and it poses a serious threat to animal health.
On top of the original sticker showing the drug expiration, traders put new one with a later expiry date to mislead farmers.
Council of Veterinary Surgeons registrar Dr Brian Chikodze confirmed the raid saying treating animals with expired or uncertified drugs was dangerous.
This resulted in the confiscation of three huge loads of counterfeit, unregistered and expired medicines with stickers put on them to conceal the original expiry dates that had passed.
Use of expired and counterfeit drugs leads to animals failing to recover from illnesses, promotes antimicrobial resistance and poses a threat to the health of man and the environment.
It also reduces production, productivity and profitability of animal husbandry exercises and therefore threatens livelihoods and this goes against the aspirations of attainment of a middle income economy as espoused by the President Mnangagwa in Vision 2030, said Dr Chikodze.
Dr Chikodze called for deterrent penalties for such offences.
One hopes that deterrent penalties are imposed to bring an end to such criminal activities, he said.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the Westgate haul could be a tip of an iceberg.
“We can confirm the recent raid on a shop at Westgate Mall that sells medicines.
“This could be a tip of an iceberg and chances are high that such illicit sale of drugs is rampant. All those who are selling expired drugs, unregistered drugs and counterfeit products must stop,” he said.
“Police seized an assortment of medicines and the company’s representatives are assisting with investigations.
“ The drugs are in the custody of the police at CID Drugs and Narcotics and we are working with MCAZ and the CVS. The operation is ongoing and the stakeholders are checking on how the drugs were imported as part of the investigations,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.
Farmers have urged the police and relevant stakeholders to widen their investigations and conduct raids on more hardware shops countrywide.
The Zimbabwe Indigenous Women Farmers’ Trust director Mrs Dephina Nkomo said the sale of such dangerous drugs was rampant and all shops must be checked to ensure they are conforming to the law.
She attributed the deaths of cattle and other animals to expired and substandard drugs that are sold countrywide.
This year we lost a number of cattle because of January disease and other diseases.
They died despite efforts to save them with drugs. In most cases drugs were purchased but maybe due to the quality of the medicines we are now buying, they eventually died.
The police and all other relevant stakeholders must expand their operations and conduct more raids throughout the country to seize all substandard and illegal medicines and affect arrests.
This problem is widespread and deterrent penalties must be imposed on the offenders, said Mrs Nkomo.
In most cases, we just buy drugs based on the label that we see but experts know better and they should help us differentiate the fake from original product to save our livestock .
The president of the Zimbabwe Integrated Commercial Farmers Union Mrs Mayiwepi Jiti said the raids should also include herbicides, pesticides, fertilisers and other chemicals.
Apart from veterinary medicines, we are also buying expired herbicides and other substandard chemicals for farming.
At times farmers buy herbicides which are fraudulently mixed with water. The moment you mix the herbicides with water according to directions on the label, it becomes weak and ineffective.
That is why we see farmers who would have applied pre-emergence herbicides, being forced to fork out more money to buy post-emergency herbicides, an unnecessary cost that increases the farmer’s production cost, she said.
Mrs Jiti said the country’s borders must be tightly monitored to ensure medicines and other chemicals are not smuggled into the country.
Such medicines, herbicides and other agricultural chemicals are smuggled into the country while some are poorly produced locally. There must be quality control measures to protect farmers from fraudsters who sell substandard and expired medicines and chemicals.
Online Reporter