Abstract
Pharmacists must be aware of veterinary drugs to prevent abuse and misuse of the drugs, and to ensure the safety of livestock under the veterinarian prescription system. In this study, the awareness of animal pharmacies was surveyed in order to find out the role of animal pharmacies and the necessity of veterinary drug education for pharmacists. Surveys were conducted by 187 animal owners and 115 community pharmacists. 80% of the animal owners had purchased drugs for their animals. 63% of respondents were not aware of the existence of animal pharmacies. The best selling drug class for animals was antiparasitic. The most common drug that respondents wanted to buy in animal pharmacies was also antiparasitic. About 80% of respondents answered affirmatively on the question of whether they would buy the drugs from animal pharmacies regardless of the location of the pharmacies. Most community pharmacists were aware of the existence of animal pharmacies. 70% of pharmacists had considered trading in veterinary drugs. 41% of respondents answered that they did not trade in them because they were not familiar with veterinary drugs. 80% of respondents answered that what they needed most was education in order to increase the number of animal pharmacies. Pharmacies for animal will expand the choice of animal owners, and enable pharmacists to improve their specialty as well as to diversify the pharmacy services. To achieve this, promotion of animal pharmacies and education about veterinary drugs for pharmacists would be needed in regular education system.