Preparing for Complying to Veterinarian Feed Directive Regulations

Preparing for Complying to Veterinarian Feed Directive Regulations

While at the Cattle Industry Convention last week, I visited with Elanco veterinarian Dr. Kerry Keffaber about the Veterinary Feed Directives or VFD regulations. All livestock producers need to be preparing now for when the regulations go into affect January of 2017. He explains
Keffaber: “Now is the time to start the preparations. One: a great move would be to establish a veterinarian client patient relationship. Visit with him and make sure you have that solid. Second: visit with him and also review your health plan. What products are you using? What ways can you add improvement and how they fit into this new program for regulations of antibiotic use. Third you probably want to talk to suppliers. Make sure that you’ve got that flow working back and forth and you can’t get overeducated. Spend time educating yourself about the process and educating about antibiotic stewardship. And all your other team members so they are aware and prepared when this time comes.”
Becoming aware of what the regulations entail and making the needed changes to your animal health practices is critical, Dr. Keffaber adds
Keffaber: “Often times people are looking at doing the right thing already. What we are doing here is just documenting. So any time when there is paperwork there is hassle and headaches — nobody wants to keep more paper work — but there is value in doing it and demonstrating that you are doing right. Secondary you are going to get deeper and closer with your veterinarian. I’m biased I think they can add a lot of value to make sure that you are doing the right thing for your cattle and for the consumer that eats your product.”

 

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