For more than 35 years, Copiso has had an experienced veterinary pharmacy to meet the needs of livestock farming. It is one of the cooperative’s least visible services, but one of great importance. It is a retailer of animal health products that is responsible for purchasing veterinary medicines. It buys them directly from laboratories or wholesale distributors and dispenses them to livestock farmers who need them for their farms.
The veterinarian in charge of the animal health products department, Carmen Melendo Cubero, emphasizes that it has all the safety guarantees required by Spanish regulations. She assures consumers that they can be confident in the high quality of the meat produced by the integrated pig farms and Copiso members, as well as other types of livestock, such as cattle, sheep, horses, and poultry.
“The administrative requirements are very exhaustive,” says Carmen Melendo. “The demands on the traceability of all animal health products, with their entries, exits, and storage, and the control of prescriptions are maximum,” she says. In addition, the nutritional care and quality of the feed manufactured by Copiso is “total,” based on raw materials such as cereals and oilseeds, with some other natural supplements, such as fats. Currently, no medicated premixes are used in the feed except for deworming or, in very exceptional cases and with notification to the livestock administration of the Castilla y León regional Government, antibiotics are used to eradicate certain diseases.
The animal health product dispensing department currently consists of three people who manage sales, in addition to the 11 veterinarians on Copiso’s staff who serve the integrated farms, as the animals are owned by the cooperative. In the case of non-integrated member pig farms, or other types of animals, they need to be cared for by a veterinarian who is not on staff. Veterinary professionals write the prescriptions, which are then dispensed by the veterinary pharmacy. With a few exceptions, this is done via a computer platform. Copiso works with ‘Generarecetas’ and delivers the prescribed products to the farmer. To understand the importance of this animal health product dispensing service, it should be remembered that Copiso has exceeded one million pigs sold in the 2024 financial year.
The veterinary pharmacy shares space in the Copiso store on Avenida Valladolid and has reinforced its facilities with large warehouses and a cold storage room to ensure the preservation of products that require it.