WHO Opposes Global Control of Ketamine

Veterinarians worldwide rely on the analgesic to treat animals–including horses–in their care.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

The World Health Organization (WHO) has opposed a Chinese United Nations (U.N.) delegation request of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs to place a commonly used anesthetic and analgesic, ketamine, under international control. The Chinese delegation made its request—which would restrict veterinarians’ ability to access it—in March 2015 on grounds that ketamine poses a public health risk when abused by people in recreational and other situations. Veterinarians worldwide, however, rely on ketamine to treat animals in their care.

Faced with the possibility of losing ketamine access, U.S. veterinary professional organizations advised their memberships to submit comments about the Chinese request to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ketamine is probably the most widely used veterinary anesthetic in the world, primarily because of its safety, says René Carlson, DVM, president of the World Veterinary Association and 2015 president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Ketamine is also the only induction anesthetic agent used for horses in many countries.

“Since the majority of equine anesthesia is conducted in the field, ketamine is the ideal drug for intravenous anesthesia because of its high reliability and unique pharmacokinetic properties,” Carlson said.

Also, because there’s little accumulation of ketamine in the body when administered for prolonged periods, the drug provides a rapid recovery time, Carlson said

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Pat Raia is a veteran journalist who enjoys covering equine welfare, industry, and news. In her spare time, she enjoys riding her Tennessee Walking Horse, Sonny.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
303 votes · 303 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!