Guidelines at a glance

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new rule on veterinary feed directives (VFDs) takes effect as of January 2017. Here are the highlights:

Antimicrobial drugs that FDA has deemed medically important to humans should be used in poultry and livestock only to prevent, control or treat a specific disease or organism.
A Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) should be obtained from a licensed veterinarian before using any feeds containing medically important antibiotics; a veterinary prescription is required for medically important water medications.
Medically important antibiotics should not be used solely for performance benefits, such as improved weight gain or feed conversion.
Only those antibiotics not medically important to humans with approved FDA claims for increased growth rate and improved feed conversion should be used to optimize performance.
Synthetic anticoccidials, ionophores and antibiotics not considered medically important to humans may be used without a VFD, though veterinary involvement is still encouraged for all antibiotic decisions.

For more information on VFDs, click here.

Posted on June 5, 2015

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tags: fda guidelines, feed antibiotics

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