Some Antibiotics in Animal Feed Will Require Veterinary Feed Directive Beginning Jan. 1


September 6, 2016, 2:16 pm | Grant Dewell, Chris Rademacher, Yuko Sato

AMES, Iowa – In an effort to protect human and animal health from the rise of antibiotic resistance, the Food and Drug Administration has issued new guidelines that will regulate medically important antibiotic use in animal feed.

Antibiotics in animal feedBeginning Jan. 1, 2017, veterinary oversight will be required when using medically important antibiotics for treatment, prevention and control through Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD). Antibiotics classified as non-medically important are not affected by the VFD.

Complete information on the Veterinary Feed Directive (AS 0011) is available online through the Extension Store.

“The VFD ensures that the veterinarian and producer are using antibiotics that are medically important for therapeutic purposes, and that they are necessary and warranted,” said Chris Rademacher, ISU Extension and Outreach swine veterinarian.

“Producers who want to continue to use a VFD drug must have a VFD from a licensed veterinarian that they have a valid veterinary-client-patient relationship with. This will promote more veterinary-producer interactions that will guide the decisions to use medically important antibiotics for mass medication (feed or water).”

Producers are required to keep their VFDs on file for two years. In addition, veterinarians and feed manufacturers who do not abide by the VFD regulations could face fines or the revocation of their licenses.

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