Swine antibiotic requirement to change

New U.S. Food and Drug Administration swine requirements to be put into effect Jan. 1 will increase veterinary oversight on certain antibiotic treatments.

According to the FDA, in 2012, the agency began issuing compliance policy guides regarding antibiotic usage in animal agriculture. Compliance Policy Guide 209 established FDA’s position that medically important antibiotics should not be used for production enhancement, or rate of gain or feed efficiency, and that veterinary oversight should be required when using medically important antibiotics for treatment, prevention or control.

This led to the FDA taking a new approach on the judicious use of medically important antibiotics in food-animal production. It involves voluntary cooperation by all sectors.

“The FDA implemented these guides in response to growing concern about antimicrobial resistance,” the agency said in a statement. “There is no direct evidence that antimicrobial usage in animal agriculture leads to antibiotic resistance in human medicine.”

On Dec. 11, 2013, FDA initiated a three-year transition process to complete its food-animal antibiotic strategy. This action requests animal-health companies to outline intentions to voluntarily remove any production/growth-promotion uses from product labels of medically important antibiotics.

The FDA guidance also eliminates over-the-counter status of these medications and increases veterinary oversight for on-farm therapeutic use by requiring a veterinary feed directive, or VFD, for feed applications and a prescription for water treatments.

The final FDA rule for feed antibiotics was announced in June of 2015, so farmers have had some time to plan ahead.

According to the Iowa State University Extension Service, the classes of medically important drugs includes Tetracyclines (CTC, OTC, Aureomycin), Macrolides (Pulmotil, Tylan), Lincosamides (Lincomycin), Sulfas (RofenAid) and all penicillins.

Non-medically important classes include Tiamulin (Denagard), Ionophores (Avatec, Bovatec, Cattlyst, Coban, Maxiban, Rumensin), Bacitracin (BMD), Bambermycin (Flavomycin, GainPro) and Carbadox (Mecadox).

Regulations call for a valid Veterinary-Client-Patient-Relationship file to be submitted. It includes various items from both owner and veterinarian, ranging from veterinarian availability for follow-up care to prove the relationship wasn’t established solely based on a telephonic or electronic communication.

A list of state-by-state requirements can be found on the American Veterinary Medical Association's website.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at
641-792-3121 ext. 6532
or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com