Five years after the introduction of the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry's e-prescription system for animals as part of the effort to ensure the traceability of drugs used in the fight against animal diseases, some 10.7 million e-prescriptions have been issued for 182.4 million animals of different species, the latest data revealed on the subject.

The e-prescription system, or "e-Reçete" in Turkish, which was initially introduced on Jan. 1, 2018, provided veterinarians the option to issue their prescriptions electronically.

Through the system, which aims to focus on issues related to animal diseases such as drug consumption control, the vaccination and treatment figures of stray animals with prescribed drugs exceeded 226 million in five years, according to data from the ministry compiled by Anadolu Agency (AA).

Following the launch of this system, the Veterinary Medicine Tracking System (ITS) was also put into practice on March 1, 2018, to ensure the traceability of the import, production and distribution of veterinary drugs and the raw materials required for the production of these drugs.

The two applications were hence offered to veterinarians and pharmacists free of charge, and they have integrated with the duo ever since.

To date, around 27,500 users have registered for the e-prescription system, while 20,455 users and more than 25,000 pharmacists have registered with the ITS.

Thanks to the aforementioned systems, it became possible to trace which drug, when and how it was administered for the treatment of a particular animal.

As of Aug. 15, 2019, in addition to the e-prescription and ITS system, the Vaccine Tracking System (ATS) was launched by the same ministry to ensure the traceability of biological vaccines used by veterinarians in Türkiye.

Within the scope of the ATS, 9.5 million documents were issued for 30.5 million animals and livestock, including poultry and fish. The system allows instantaneous monitoring of the nation's vaccine stockpiles and immunization records.