[Homeopathy in veterinary medicine and its pharmacologic/toxicologic and drug regulatory evaluation].

This review gives a summary of the definitions, delimitations and principles of homeopathy and its potential mechanisms of action, which is followed by an overview and critical evaluation of the most important homeopathic drugs registered for treatment of animals. It is shown that several of the marketed homeopathic drugs for treatment of animals violate current drug laws and represent a risk for both the animals and the consumer of food produced from animals. Based on these potential risks of homeopathic treatments, new EC regulations were recently published, which will markedly affect (and hopefully improve) the current situation of veterinary homeopathic drugs.