Farmers selling cattle will face fines of up to €300,000, or prison time of up to two years, for failing to disclose that an animal is within a withdrawal period after being administered with veterinary medicine.

A new law is being prepared to make it an offence for sellers to fail to tell buyers that an animal is still within the withdrawal period.

The law is set to be published this year, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The offence will come with liability to a summary conviction, or a more severe conviction on indictment in a court.

On a summary conviction, the offender will be liable to a 'class A' fine, or to imprisonment for a term of up to six months (a class A fine is a fine of up to €5,000).

The conviction on indictment will come with a fine of up to €300,000, or to imprisonment of a term of up to two years, or both.

A spokesperson for the department confirmed to Agriland: "It will shortly be an offence not to inform a prospective buyer of an outstanding withdrawal period.

"Preparation of the legislation which provides for this offence is at an advanced stage and is expected to be published this year."

"It is very important to ensure food safety, and it is currently a legal requirement that farmers keep an up-to-date record of medicines purchased and administered including the recording of withdrawal dates," the spokesperson added.

The department spokesperson said that prescription and veterinary advice should always be followed to ensure that animals are given the correct dose rate in relation to animal weight, the records are correct, and that the correct withdrawal period is adhered to in order that an animal is not inadvertently sold for slaughter before the withdrawal period expiring.

In other news on veterinary medicines, the introduction of the requirement for antiparasitic veterinary medicines to be provided to farmers only on prescription is now deferred until September 1.

From that date, a veterinary prescription will be required for all antiparasitic veterinary medicinal products for food producing animals.

The implementation date was moved to acknowledge the significant change required in moving to digital prescribing for both prescribers and retailers of veterinary medicines, and also farmers, according to the department.