GALWAY-BASED veterinary surgeon Felim Mac Eoin has been successful in his appeal against the severity of the sentence imposed on him in Gort District Court in January 2021, relating to the possession of an unauthorised animal remedy.

The animal remedy in question, sarcoid cream, otherwise known as AW cream, is formulated by Derek Knottenbelt OBE, a former Professor of equine medicine in Liverpool University, and one of the leading world experts on skin cancers and other skin conditions in horses. The cream is used to treat particularly aggressive and difficult to treat types of skin cancer in horses.

In the District Court, Mr Mac Eoin was fined €2,500 and a criminal conviction was recorded against him. At Galway Circuit Court last Friday, expert witness Warren Schofield, a consultant equine surgeon and former lecturer and surgeon at UCD Veterinary Teaching Hospital, told the court that sarcoid cream has been in widespread use by equine vets in Ireland for almost 30 years.

Schofield stated that he had taught about the cream while a lecturer in UCD, where Mac Eoin obtained his degree. Schofield explained that in order to obtain the cream for an individual horse, a veterinary surgeon must upload images of the sarcoids to an online portal for examination by Professor Knottenbelt. The cream would be dispatched directly to the vet under strict treatment protocols.

Informed the court

Dr Schofield informed the court that 80-90% of horses with fibroblastic sarcoids achieve remission following treatment with the cream. In his experience the cream is the safest and most effective treatment on the lower limbs of horses, and that he was not aware of any incidents of adverse outcomes on human health involving the cream.

Louis Reardon, for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, informed the court that the cream did not have market authorisation when it was discovered on Mac Eoin’s premises in May 2018. Reardon was asked by Bernard Madden, S.C.., representing Mac Eoin, whether the Irish equine veterinary community had received information from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine regarding the legality of the cream prior to or following Mac Eoin’s conviction in 2021.

Judge Callaghan was informed that many horses who require treatment for fibroblastic sarcoids must now be transported to Northern Ireland veterinary clinics, as the cream may be legally used there, or else use an inferior treatment. In cases where an owner did not have the resources to consider treatments outside of the jurisdiction, then sub-optimal outcomes could occur.

Counsel for the State, Geri Silke BL put it to Warren Schofield that alternative remedies exist which could be used. This was strongly rebutted by Schofield who said that while there may be other topical treatments, in his 30 years of experience and his contributions to scientific journals, nothing that he had used on fibroblastic sarcoids achieved the success rates of AW cream.

Noting that the cream can be legally used by veterinary surgeons north of the border, Judge Callaghan applied the Probation Act and struck out the €2,500 fine which had been imposed at Gort. Mac Eoin was supported in his appeal by the Irish Equine Veterinary Association.