Restrictions on medicated feeds coming to farms

By the end of this year, hundreds of antimicrobial applications for livestock will change to add veterinarian oversight and remove approval for growth and efficiency uses. Dr. William T. Flynn, deputy director for science policy at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said the change is a substantial departure from the way antimicrobials have been used in U.S. agriculture for decades. “It’s a big country, and there’s a lot of farms and ranches out there to get this information to,” he said. “And that was a key reason why we set out a three-year timeline to put these changes into place.” Agency officials announced in December 2013 that pharmaceutical companies would have three years to consent to drug approval changes that would remove permission for livestock production use, in feed or water, of any drugs that are in the same antimicrobial classes used in human medicine and remove over-the-counter access to those drugs. They warned that companies could face administrative action if they failed to comply, and by June 2014, all affected companies had agreed to make the changes, planned for late this year. Specific dates were unavailable at press time...more