Veterinary Feed Directive — How’s It Working?
It’s been almost a year since the introduction of the veterinary feed directive and Guy Ellis, DVM, shares insight into how implementation is affecting cattlemen.
By Nicole Lane Erceg
On Jan. 1, 2017, the cattle industry changed. After 2 years of preparation and discussions, the veterinary feed directive (VFD) rule officially went into effect. The directive regulates how antibiotics that are important to human health can be administered in livestock production.
An effort to protect both animals and people, the directive essentially moved these antibiotics used in feed to a position “behind the counter,” allowing access only with a veterinarian prescription, solely for disease treatment and according to the product label.
No manner of preparation can foresee all the industry challenges of any new regulation. Guy Ellis, DVM, and technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health, shares that VFD implementation has had its fair share of kinks as the industry adjusts to the new requirements.
Overcoming challenges
For a veterinarian to write a VFD or “prescription” for a customer, a Veterinary Client Patient Relationship (VCPR) must be established with that producer and his or her animals. Every state has its own definition of what is required for a VCPR, but it generally requires that a veterinarian must make timely visits to the ranch and be able to responsibly make prescriptions for ranch animals in accordance with the law.
“It’s just a matter of developing a relationship with the veterinarian so they can help you make responsible decisions for antibiotic use in your animals,” says Ellis.
For large operations with a veterinarian on staff, the VFD is simply an added piece of paperwork sent to the feed mill.
Owners of small herds must also have a veterinarian relationship, the VCPR, before an antibiotic is prescribed.
Ellis says that confusion has occurred for some family ranches — which make up 98 percent of the ranches in Texas — around who has the VCPR on file and how many VCPRs might be necessary.
For example, Ellis says he’s been asked these 2 questions but doesn’t have an answer yet: Does the wife need to be on the VCPR to pick up medicated feed? If a VCPR is established with the ranch owner, will the hired hand or another family member legally be allowed to administer the feed?
Ellis believes that issues such as these will be worked out over time.
Many ranchers already had a working relationship with a veterinarian prior to the official implementation of VFD and made an easy transition. For producers without a VCPR already established, Ellis says making it official is a simple process that requires a relationship and ranch visit so the vet can familiarize themselves with the operation.
Then, when a VFD is needed, the vet can easily prepare it in digital or written form and send the file to the feed mill. He recommends that any rancher who does not already have a VCPR and who plans to use medicated feed, establish one immediately, before a situation occurs where animals need to be treated.
Beyond restricting these important antibiotics, VFD halted the use of these antibiotics for performance — allowing administration only for disease treatment. Ellis doesn’t deny that implementation of the new rule has impacted production.
The new law requiring the antibiotics to be fed according to the label has even sparked potential label changes, according to Ellis. He says there have been challenges because some drugs are not labeled for “free choice” consumption, requiring additional constraints on how the antibiotic could be fed at the ranch.
“Cattlemen are very resilient and can adapt, recover and find new ways to make up for any performance issues,” says Ellis, noting that he isn’t familiar with any major issues associated with loss of performance.
Being a part of the solution
One development Ellis says is making the VFD process easier is the VFD digital format. He says this makes the process simple by allowing veterinarians to go online, write the prescription and share it with livestock producers and feed mills all from a computer. This format also makes file storage easy. The law requires that ranchers keep a copy of every VFD order for a minimum of 2 years.
“I think the digital format has been the best thing that happened to make this process simple and easy to use,” says Ellis.
Even with the minor challenges, Ellis says that the rule is functioning for the intended objective: helping the industry use antibiotics more responsibly.
“Ultimately, the goal of the VFD was to reduce the amount of antibiotics used in production agriculture,” says Ellis. “I think it has created an atmosphere where if you are using antibiotics, you use them according to the way they were designed to be used and it has made us all more responsible in how we use antibiotics in food-producing animals.”
“We, as cattlemen and producers, can use this as an opportunity to build consumer confidence that we are going to do what we need to as a beef industry to ensure a safe and responsible food supply,” says Ellis.
However, cattlemen can’t halt growing antibiotic resistance alone. Doing what is better for cattle and preventing resistance issues requires a mutual effort from veterinarians, ranchers and industry partners to continue to produce a profitable and healthy food supply.
“When we do these things, working together as veterinarian and producer, I think it sends a great message to consumers that we are doing our part to judiciously use antibiotics and reduce what some believe are resistance factors associated with medically important antibiotics in human medicine.”
What’s on the horizon?
For a law that’s been in place less than a year, Ellis says the cattle industry has adapted well and made progress in meeting consumer needs, while balancing animal health.
“The future is exciting, but the cattle industry is going to have to adapt, because we don’t have any new antibiotics on the horizon,” says Ellis “We are going to have to be very responsible with the ones we do have and very creative in finding alternate ways to be able to keep these cattle healthy without the use of antibiotics. The Veterinary Feed Directive is going to continue to work and I think is going to get easier for everyone involved.”
For cattlemen looking for additional information and resources on VFD and antibiotic use in beef production, Ellis says a quick online search can result in an overwhelming amount of material. The resources he recommends cattlemen turn to include the FDA website, the Beef Cattle Institute at Kansas State University and North Dakota State University Extension.
Members of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association can find a series of articles on VFDs on the TSCRA resources page. This page is accessible by logging into your TSCRA membership at tscra.org. Navigate to TSCRA Resources and search for Veterinary Feed Directive. ❚
“VFD – How’s It Working?” is excerpted from the October 2017 issue of The Cattleman magazine.