The Veterinary Feed Directive; What's it Mean for You?

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 - 6:30pm to 9:00pm
Location:
Fairfield County Ag Center
Contact email:
Contact name:
Stan Smith

If you raise livestock and ever feed medically important antibiotics such as tetracycline, sulfamethazine, penicillin, neomycin or tylosin, the way you manage your animals' health will change by January 1, 2017 when the FDA's Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) program goes into effect. This will mean that to use these antibiotics in feed, you will need a written Veterinary  Feed Directive (VFD) from your veterinarian, who must be licensed in the state of Ohio. Before a veterinarian may write you a VFD, you must have a valid Veterinary-Client-Patient-Relationship (VCPR) with that person. For livestock producers to receive a valid VFD and feed medically important antibiotics, they will need to have a veterinarian that works on their livestock operation, has enough knowledge to help make clinical judgements for the livestock owner's animals, and is available for follow-up.

To learn more about VFDs and maintaining a VCPR, plan to attend the upcoming Veterinary Feed Directive; What's it Mean for You? meeting on December 7, 2016.

The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Fairfield County Ag Center with a hamburger fry compliments of the hosts and sponsors. This will be followed at 7 p.m. with a presentation by Tim McDermott DVM, OSU Extension AgNR Educator, explaining the requirements of producers, feed stores and veterinarians for complying with the Veterinary Feed Directive Program. Local feed store managers as well as veterinarians will also be on hand to respond to questions.

This program is being hosted by the Fairfield County Cattlemen's Association, and is sponsored by Falers Feed Store, Marshall Grain, Granville Milling, Rushcreek Feed & Supply and OSU Extension in Fairfield County.

Hold the date and let us know you will attend by emailing smith.263@osu.edu or calling 740-652-7260.

In the meantime, here's an overview of the law that will require VFDs: http://u.osu.edu/beef/2016/04/13/the-veterinary-feed-directive-vfd-and-the-beef-producer/

This link includes a list of all the drugs that are being transitioned from over-the-counter (OTC) to VFD status: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/UCM482258.pdf

Here's a list of all the water soluble drugs transitioning from OTC to prescription status: http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/ucm482106.htm