Adverse drug reactions may become apparent in treated animal patients, in exposed users or as adverse effects on the environment. They may also manifest as excess drug residues in food of animal origin. As a consequence, legislation and regulatory approaches have developed to address these issues and to ensure monitoring of continued product safety and, where necessary, the use of regulatory actions. All of these aspects are covered by the term “pharmacovigilance”.

Veterinary pharmacovigilance is a rapidly growing discipline in both regulatory and scientific terms, and its importance can only increase as regulatory agencies across the globe seek to improve their hazard and risk assessment of marketed veterinary medicines by applying the techniques of post-marketing surveillance. Its roots include veterinary medicine, medicine, pharmacology, toxicology, pathology and, increasingly, ecotoxicity and environmental safety.

This book will be fundamentally important reading for all involved in the field of veterinary pharmacovigilance including veterinarians, physicians, environmental scientists, regulators and those involved in drug development and market maintenance.