New antibiotic rules for 2016

[stocky]

Lately, I have been hearing alot of talk about new 2016 rules for antibiotics that will make them much harder to get and alot more expensive for farmers to use on their cattle. A feed store owner told me today that he will have to stop selling medicated feed due to the increase in paperwork and traceability to each animal. Others have said that instead of being able to buy drugs from company salesmen they will have to be purchased from veterinarians at a per dose per animal amount. This would take a drug like Draxxin from 3.60 per cc to 5.50-6.00 per cc, which would be prohibitive for most farmers. People are blaming different groups for pushing these rules but the veterinarians are getting the blame from farmers for supporting this as they are being blamed for wanting to cut the throats of company salesmen who are selling the drugs for half of what vets charge. I have no idea what is true and what is not true. I am just wondering what others have heard about the new rules and why they are being implemented.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I think you are talking about the new veterinary feed directive rule (VFD). I went to a meeting about this and it will be a cluster at first. You will need a VFD from a vet to add most medications besides rumensin and coccidiostats (basically any antibiotic that might be used on humans) to the feed. This will include CTC, so I am guessing that with all of the extra paperwork involved places like Tractor Supply will no longer carry it as they would have to keep track of who they sold it to for two years. Elanco has a very comprehensive website about it: http://feedstuffs.com/vfd.aspx.

Bottom line: if we as an industry can't manage to comply with these rules for antibiotics in feed and have too many violations from people trying to buck the system, it will be proof to those who are pushing this through that more restrictions are needed and you can kiss any OTC antibiotic like LA 200 goodbye in the future. So I would take this seriously. :2cents:

 

[highgrit]

Any new regulations are detrimental to all food producers. There's enough BS laws and rules on the books already. The way I see it is the groups with the most $money and biggest mouths will get what they want.

 

[Bigfoot]

I wish I could get draxxin for $360 a hundred. Paying $405 now. I shutter to think what they would charge me for a dose.

 

[Lucky_P]

Veterinarian here - but no longer in practice, and not prescribing any treatments - nor will I be writing a script under the VFD regulations.
This(VFD) is all about antimicrobials in feed... has nothing to do with injectibles or orally-administered therapeutic antimicrobials.
It's pretty much all about addressing public perception and hand-wringing about subtherapeutic antibiotic usage in food animals. Will it have any positive effect on diminishing or slowing the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria? I dunno... but I doubt it.

I feel fairly confident in stating that the vast majority of veterinarians are not looking at this as an income stream, much less a 'cash cow'... it's just one more layer of governmental oversight and onerous record-keeping that they'll have to comply with and maintain records on... or face a fine; many will just decline to face the hurdles, so in the end, it may make it harder for producers to obtain medicated feeds.

 

[tom4018]

Will this mean an end to medicated minerals?

 

[kenny thomas]

Will this mean an end to medicated minerals?

My understanding is that it will end you just stopping by the feed store and getting the medicated mineral.

 

[stocky]

Thanks for the replies and the clarification Lucky_P. The prices I quoted were for the 250 cc size bottle, so that might explain the difference in price. Here in fescue country, keeping a good mineral with CTC before the cattle from May-August will almost entirely eliminate fescue foot, foot rot, pinkeye, and fescue toxicity problems. Ragland's pasture mix has about 3 times the CTC as other minerals I have tried. For 300 cows and at 17 dollars per 50 lb bag, at 100 bags, it costs around 1700 dollars to protect the cow-calf pairs for the summer. Compare that to 20 percent of the cows and calves having problems and have to be doctored and at 12 ccs per cow, even at just over 4 dollars per cc of Draxxin, that is 50 dollars per shot times 60 cows is 3,000 dollars, plus the ones that take a 2nd and third treatment, and the calves to doctor for pinkeye and either 5 bucks per dart or all the time it takes to get them up and doctor them, plus all the loss of condition with the animal and the set back. That 1700 dollars can easily save 10,000 dollars plus all the suffering from the animal and some die. So, it will be really tough for everyone around here if there is no way to get medicated feed and minerals to use as preventative treatment.

 

[regolith]

You might remember that there are some extremists out there - maybe a lot of them - who would rather you culled a cow to slaughter or let her die than use antibiotics on her.

Our laws here are a lot tighter already and there's been rumours recently of severely restricting access to antibiotics by 2030 - now my belief is that common sense will prevail and it will still be possible to access antibiotics to prevent suffering in the foreseeable future. But the future probably isn't going to look like the recent past.
There is nothing antibiotic OTC in this country - penicillin and oxytet as well as the stronger antibiotics, anti-inflamms and hormones must be prescribed by a vet. I don't know of any medicated feeds/minerals used here or how the rules would apply to them. I do an annual consultation with a vet to approve the medications I might use regularly, and anything else I need during the year I need to talk directly to a vet to get it - the vet technicians and receptionists have been banned for several years now from saying anything that might be construed as veterinary advice, and they can't sell the drugs without the vet's prior approval for that person to be given that drug.
It gets right down to specifics. I went in recently to ask for a 'bottle of oxytocin' and the receptionist fetched a 100 ml bottle, and then realised that the vet had approved up to 3 50 ml bottles for my farm. She put it back and got a 50 ml bottle... now there's pedantics for you.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

You might remember that there are some extremists out there - maybe a lot of them - who would rather you culled a cow to slaughter or let her die than use antibiotics on her.

And those very same people will file complaints becuase the animal wasn't treated or medicated in order to cure it.

fetched a 100 ml bottle, and then realised that the vet had approved up to 3 50 ml bottles for my farm. She put it back and got a 50 ml bottle... now there's pedantics for you.

:roll: :roll:

Why not just give you one 100 ml bottle and one 50 ml bottle? Never mind......then that wouldn't be three 50 ml bottles although the amount of medicine would be the same. :roll:

 

[regolith]

You might remember that there are some extremists out there - maybe a lot of them - who would rather you culled a cow to slaughter or let her die than use antibiotics on her.

And those very same people will file complaints becuase the animal wasn't treated or medicated in order to cure it.

fetched a 100 ml bottle, and then realised that the vet had approved up to 3 50 ml bottles for my farm. She put it back and got a 50 ml bottle... now there's pedantics for you.

:roll: :roll:

Why not just give you one 100 ml bottle and one 50 ml bottle? Never mind......then that wouldn't be three 50 ml bottles although the amount of medicine would be the same. :roll:

Well it's okay because I only needed the 50 ml at most - but I wouldn't have made her go to the hassle of putting it back and getting another, the 100 ml probably had a long expiry date on it anyway.
And your *bold* is absolutely correct - just think of the number of people who want organic food (but would rather not pay the extra) because they believe animal welfare standards are better. When in fact, that is exactly what happens. And sure, the rules say you must use conventional treatments to prevent suffering but the rules also say you can't put the animal back into the herd or onto your pasture after treatment so...

The discussion of making NZ one big organic antibiotic-free farm comes up regularly & has been recently revived with 2030 as the aim.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

The discussion of making NZ one big organic antibiotic-free farm comes up regularly & has been recently revived with 2030 as the aim.

That's not going to be a good thing. Extremes never are.

 

[GMN]

They just had a story on the news tonite about this
It's just a way to make farmers work harder and pay more by going to a Vet for a script for something that needs not be-

 

[Caustic Burno]

VFD has been being tossed around at our county workshop for a year this is aimed more at feedlots. The writing on the wall is you are going to have to be certified under XYZ program to get a script from a vet in the future to cure Ole Belle's foot rot. This all goes back to regulation nation my crystal ball believes in the next ten years you will have to BQA or equivalent program to sell a cow. All this will come to pass under the guise of food safety.

 

[TexasBred]

They just had a story on the news tonite about this
It's just a way to make farmers work harder and pay more by going to a Vet for a script for something that needs not be-

To me they're regulating the wrong thing. Most medicated feeds are not medicated enough to do much good or harm anyway. The abuse is more prevalent in me and you and our bottle of LA-200 or Oxytet or whatever we have, shooting up every cow with a sniffle with a dose that might be double what's recommended and the meds being used are not even effective for what really ails the cow.

 

[TexasBred]

They just had a story on the news tonite about this
It's just a way to make farmers work harder and pay more by going to a Vet for a script for something that needs not be-

To me they're regulating the wrong thing. Most medicated feeds are not medicated enough to do much good or harm anyway. The abuse is more prevalent in me and you and our bottle of LA-200 or Oxytet or whatever we have, shooting up every cow with a sniffle with a dose that might be double what's recommended and the meds being used are not even effective for what really ails the cow and these will still be readily available to anyone who has the money.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Our beloved government has already over regulated, dismantled, and sucked the life out of our countries Industry, energy, and healthcare sectors.
It would only make logical sense for the parasites to do the same to the Ag sector...

 

[Cross-7]

What's ironic is the consumer demanding antibiotic free meat but we are importing meat from overseas where there are no regulations

And no one seems to care

 

[Cross-7]

I think all this started with the likes of chipotle and the like trying to capitalize on a niche market.
The consumer is ignorant to the use of antibiotics, implants and etc.
They blindly jump on the band wagon and depand antibiotic and hormone free meat, even though there aren't either in meat when proceeded.

Somehow they convinced the powers they be that antibiotic resistantance in animals can jump humans, but they hand out antibiotics to little Johnny every time he has a sniffle

 

[BK9954]

I wish I could get draxxin for $360 a hundred. Paying $405 now. I shutter to think what they would charge me for a dose.

I get screwed on that, still cant find someone to sell me a bottle.