FDA has issued final guidelines for veterinary feed directive (VFD) forms veterinarians will issue when authorizing the use of a medicated feed additive containing an antibiotic deemed medically important. The document provides examples that illustrate how a common VFD format might appear and how some of the information on the VFD may be pre-populated by an animal health company.
Source: Poultry Health Today, September 28, 2016.
‘By recommending a common format, the draft guidance is expected to help veterinarians, distributors (including feed mills), and animal producers quickly identify relevant information on a VFD order,’ FDA said in a statement. ‘A common format is also expected to reduce the risk of a veterinarian making an error or leaving out required information when filling in the form.’
INSIGHTS: This is one more step toward a uniform system of antibiotic oversight. Animal health pros must stay abreast of the VFD regulations and their affect on how we manage antibiotics in general. Some industry leaders predict the regulations that go into effect on January 1, 2017 are the beginning of more to be enacted later.