Veterinary surgeries should no longer be allowed to sell the drugs they prescribe to their animal patients, according to the Liberal democratic party D66.

The party is submitting a motion to parliament on Tuesday calling for an investigation into the practice. It wants to find out if ending the double role of vets would help reduce the use of antibiotics in the beef farming industry, the Telegraaf reports.

At the moment, vets both prescribe and sell medicines and D66 thinks they would be less inclined to prescribe such drugs as antibiotics if they were not benefiting from the sale.

The party wants specialist animal pharmacies set up to sell the drugs.

The wide-scale use of antibiotics in the beef industry can make animals and people resistant to drugs.