Animal Health Industry

Veterinary medicines help to keep pets and food producing animals healthy.

Healthy animals are much less susceptible to disease and infection, and good animal health is essential to good animal welfare.

Healthy animals produce safe, high quality food and fibre products for both domestic and international markets. The use of animal medicines in our livestock industries improves animal health, welfare and productivity and accounts for more than 10% of production in Australia’s seven key commodity groups and contributes more than $2.6 billion to the Australian economy.

For pets, animal medicines facilitate healthier, longer and better-quality partnerships between people and animals. There are almost 29 million pets in Australia with around 61% of households owning one or more pets. AMA produces Australia’s premier pet report, which provides information on pet ownership, owner-pet relationships and pet lifestyles across the country.

There are a range of veterinary medicines used to protect animal health in Australia including products such as vaccines, parasiticides, antibiotics, analgesics, nutritional supplements and immune stimulants.

Many veterinary medicines are registered for use by or under the supervision of a registered veterinarian.

Australia has a comprehensive regulatory system which not only ensures that veterinary medicines work as intended, but are also assessed for their impact on humans, non-target animals and plants, and the environment.

Animals in Australia are protected by biosecurity protection measures at entry-points to the country and at a farm level however animal pests and diseases are a major threat to livestock, poultry, equine and to our pets. Veterinary medicines, and other practices such as good animal husbandry, help to protect Australian animals from disease outbreaks.

‘One Health’ is built on a simple understanding – that animal health, human health and our shared environment are part of a deeply interconnected system.

Animal Medicines Australia supports a One Health approach to responding to challenges in animal health, food safety, zoonotic diseases (diseases which can be spread between animals and humans) and combating antimicrobial resistance.