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Directive Will Change How Livestock Producers Obtain Medicated Feeds

By Aimee Nielson

Amid concern over antibiotic resistance and in an effort to improve efficiency while protecting human and animal health, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is making changes in its Veterinary Feed Directive program. They are amending regulations regarding drugs added to livestock feeds; the new rules go into effect Jan. 1.



“The new rule will limit medically important antimicrobial drugs to the treatment, control and prevention of disease,” said Michelle Arnold, veterinarian for the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “The rules don’t allow for claims of weight gain or feed efficiency.”

The rule also states that producers who use medically important antimicrobials will have to have veterinary oversight.

“Because of this, many antibiotics delivered in feed currently considered over-the-counter will now require a veterinary feed directive (VFD),” Arnold said.

A VFD is a written statement from a licensed veterinarian authorizing the use of the drug or combination of drugs in an animal’s feed, much like a prescription. The owner can use the written statement to obtain and use animal feed containing a VFD drug or combination VFD drug to treat their animals.

Arnold said owners and caretakers may only feed the veterinarian-authorized feed to the specific animals covered by the statement, not to the entire herd.

“It’s important to realize that the regulations also mean that you cannot continue to feed medicated feed that you already have on hand after the VFD expiration date,” she added. “The producer, the feed distributor and the authorizing veterinarian must keep copies of the VFD for two years.”

Producers who manufacture their own feed must also comply with the new regulation and be aware that, under certain circumstances, they may be acting as a distributor and that additional requirements may apply.

Another important change is that all water soluble drugs are transitioning from over-the-counter to prescription status.

“These are significant changes. We want producers to be aware of them, so they can go into the new year fully informed,” Arnold said.

Source: uky.edu


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US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”