Page 26 - MWC 4-20-2023s

The Midwest Cattleman · April 20, 2023 · P26
Antibiotic Stewardship-What to do
Now to Prepare for Changes Ahead

By Dr. Michelle Arnold, UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
On June 11th, 2021, The health”. Examples of re- al practice where a valid do to establish and main-
Food and Drug Adminis- sponsible practices include veterinarian-client-patient tain a VCPR with you?” The
tration (FDA) finalized 1) only using antibiotics relationship exists. Veteri- law requires the veterinar-
a Guidance for Industry when necessary to treat a narians employed by drug ian to be familiar with the
(GFI) #263, which outlines sick animal; 2) establishing manufacturers or distrib- client, the livestock, and
the process for animal drug vaccination protocols and utors may not legally dis- the management of the an-
manufacturers to change other disease prevention pense prescription drugs imals on the farm through
all remaining antibiotic plans to reduce the need for to laypersons unless they “medically appropriate
formulations used in ani- antibiotics; and 3) livestock meet the above criteria. and timely visits” to the
mal health care from over- owners and veterinarians Similarly, practicing veteri- place the animals are kept.
the-counter (OTC) to pre- working together to make narians or their employees Scheduling routine veter-
scription status. Products decisions to improve the may not legally sell pre- inary visits to the farm at
commonly used by beef pro- overall animal health and scription animal drugs to intervals established by the
ducers such as injectable welfare of the herd over the walk-in customers unless veterinarian is a perfect
penicillin and oxytetracy- long term. the same criteria are met.” way to meet this require-
cline (for example, LA300) Given that this change Therefore, the first step to ment. At a minimum, the
will no longer be available is less than 6 months away, do now is establish a valid veterinarian needs to know
without a prescription from what can a livestock pro- veterinary-client-patient the livestock business you
a veterinarian as of June ducer do now to prepare relationship (VCPR). Ken- are in (commercial cow/
2023. Specifically, all dos- for it? For a veterinarian tucky has its own defini- calf; stocker/background-
age forms of medically im- to legally sell or prescribe tion of a VCPR (see Box 1 er; seedstock operation),
portant antimicrobials ap- prescription products, FDA below). Although the rules what vaccines are routinely
proved for use in animals states, “A licensed veteri- are straightforward, how to given and when, what dis-
will only be available from, narian may legally use or build a VCPR first requires eases are recurring prob-
or under the supervision of, dispense a prescription an- communication with a vet- lems at the farm and how
a licensed veterinarian, and imal drug only within the erinarian and asking the you typically treat them
only when necessary for course of her/his profession- question “What do I need to continued on page 30
the treatment, control, or
prevention of specific dis-
eases. Producers will need
to consult a veterinarian
to obtain all antibiotics in
any form (injectable, bolus,
topical, intramammary) or
to request a prescription to
purchase them from a dis-
tributor.
FDA’s goal through GFI
#263 is to curb the develop-
ment of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria and, in turn, re-
duce the risk of human in-
fections that are difficult to
treat due to ineffective an-
tibiotics. To accomplish the
goal, FDA is promoting the
implementation of “respon-
sible antibiotic stewardship
practices in veterinary med-
icine” which are defined as
“actions that preserve the
effectiveness of antibiotics
while maintaining animal

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