Accessibility is key when storing VFDs at integrated companies
The best place for integrated poultry companies to store veterinary feed directives (VFDs) should depend on whether they’re keeping hard or electronic copies.
The updated VFD rule that took effect January 1, 2017, requires VFDs to be kept for 2 years. Veterinarians must keep their originals and producers and feed mills must keep their copies.
However, it’s okay to store VFDs in the same place as long as each of these entities can access their copy if an FDA compliance inspection occurs, says William Flynn, DVM, MS, deputy director for science policy at FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.
This plan would work for smaller integrators where the main office, the veterinarian’s office and feed mill are close together on the same property. But what about integrators with facilities that are far apart?
If the integrator is keeping hard copies of VFDs, it would be best to have the original at the veterinarian’s office and a copy each at the producer’s office and at the feed mill, Flynn said in an interview with VFD News Center and Poultry Health Today.
“I think that would be a safer, cleaner way to go because. this way, if an issue arose [during an inspection], the information would be readily available…It’s a matter of accessibility.”
However, if an integrated company is storing VFDs by electronic means — on a computer where each VFD can be readily retrieved at any of those three locations — would it be acceptable for them to keep only the veterinarian’s original copy?
“As long as that information is accessible, I don’t see that as being an issue,” Flynn said.
Posted on January 31, 2017
