Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association | 1121 Chatham Road Springfield, IL 62704

What is the responsibility of a feed distributor in regards to the Veterinary Feed Directive?

In general, the feed distributors must have a copy of the VFD written by the veterinarian and they must keep it on file for 2 years.  Veterinarians are required to put an expiration date on the VFD and the longest prescription is 6 months. When the VFD expires ALL of the feed in the bin or left over in bags, etc. is unusable meaning it cannot be feed to animals.   Some drug  companies, like Zoetis, are printing transition labels to remind all parties about this.   Feed distributors MUST notify FDA prior to distributing any feed once the VFD is effective.  The brochure for feed distributors below spell out what should be on a VFD and how to register.

There are plans for more data collection per FDA.  It is unknown what this will look like at the moment.

Per FDA DATA COLLECTION: ” Gathering information on the way medically important antibiotics are used is essential to measuring the impact of the FDA’s judicious use strategy. The FDA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a plan for collecting additional data on antibiotic use to supplement existing sales data on antibiotic drugs sold for use in food-producing animals (reported under section 105 of the Animal Drug User Fee Amendments of 2008 (ADUFA 105)) and data on antibiotic resistance (collected under the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System). When combined with new on-farm data, this will provide a more comprehensive and science-based picture of antibiotic drug use and resistance in animal agriculture. This data collection plan is intended to provide the data needed to a) assess the rate of adoption of changes outlined in the FDA’s Guidance #213, b) help gauge the success of stewardship efforts and guide their continued evolution and optimization, and c) assess associations between antibiotic use practices and resistance trends over time. The FDA is continuing to work with the USDA and CDC in developing this plan and expects to hold a public meeting in the summer of 2015 in order to obtain input from the public.”