In preparation for the December 2016 deadline for Guidance 209 and Guidance 213, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) wrote a letter answering a number of questions related to the Guidances and the Veterinary Feed Directive regulation.
The letter was written as a follow-up to the completion of 12 regional workshops hosted by the Farm Foundation as part of its Antimicrobial Education Project. The regional workshops provided an opportunity for veterinarians, producers, feed mill personnel, and others involved in livestock and poultry production to discuss the implementation of Guidance 209, Guidance 213, and the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD). The letter provides further information on questions that may not have been answered during the workshop sessions.
The questions addressed in the letter were varied, ranging from obtaining and disposing of VFD feed, to enforcement of compliance with Veterinary Feed directives, and how success of the regulations will be measured. FDA stressed in the letter that the agency will be employing a phased enforcement strategy that focuses first on education and training before moving to risk-based surveillance and for-cause inspections. The letter also reminds stakeholders that additional questions for CVM may be sent to [email protected]. A letter, with questions and answers, is available here.
