The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Veterinary feed directive information for producers

The MSU Extension Beef Cattle Program will be conducting educational meetings throughout the state starting in late July. Antibiotic use in livestock and humans continues to undergo greater scrutiny as antibiotic resistance evolves. Antibiotic resistance is a main reason for implementation of the new VFD rule. First, the rule deals with antibiotics fed to animals, not injectable antibiotics. Secondly, not all antibiotics currently fed to animals are included in the rule.

The FDA has published two “Guidance for Industry” proposals, #209 and #213. The first deals with the use of medically important antibiotics in food producing animals, and the second recommends that drug companies voluntarily align their product use with GFI #209. “Medically important” refers to antibiotics that are used in both human and animal medicine.

Guidance #209 has two main proposals: 1. the use of medically important antibiotics in food producing animals should be limited to those uses that are considered necessary for assuring animal health; and 2. the use of medically important antibiotics in food producing animals should be limited to those uses that include veterinary oversight or consultation. Guidance #213 asks drug companies to voluntarily revise their product labels to remove growth promotion and feed efficiency claims and provides for moving over the counter products to prescription or veterinary feed directive (VFD) status.

A veterinary client patient relationship is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations in three parts. First, the veterinarian has assumed responsibility for medical judgments about the animals and the client has agreed to follow the veterinarian’s instructions. Second, the veterinarian has sufficient knowledge of the animal(s) to initiate at least a general or preliminary diagnosis of the medical condition of the animal(s) and makes timely visits. And third, the veterinarian is available for follow up in case of adverse reactions or treatment failure.

A VFD consists of paperwork for the drug in question, which is filled out by a veterinarian and gives a description of the livestock to be treated, some instructions to the feed mill, and an expiration date (maximum 6 months). The feed mill must have the VFD before feed can be distributed, and the feedmill must notify the FDA. Electronic VFD forms are being developed

See Page 3: Green to reduce the physical paperwork load. VFD records will need to be kept by the veterinarian, client, and feed mill or other sales point of the feed.

The list of VFD Short Course host cities and dates include Kalispell July 26, Miles City August 3, Billings August 4, Glasgow August 9, Havre August 10, Lewistown August 11, Sidney August 16, Butte August 24, and Missoula August 25. All meetings will start at 1 pm, look for meeting locations in the July Cow Sense Chronicle located at http://animalrangeextension.montana.edu/beef/documents/6-16CowSenseChronicle.pdf.

For the complete article, please link to the above website. The article was written by Rachel Endecott (MSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist).

Montana State University U.S. Department of Agriculture and Montana Counties Cooperating. MSU Extension is an equal opportunity/affirmative action provider of educational outreach.