New policies from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use of medically important antibiotics are in effect, and the animal drug industry has met the agency’s January 1 deadline for changing labels, FDA said.

Medically important antibiotics used in food-producing animals must now be given under the supervision of a veterinarian. A veterinarian must sign a Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) to authorize use of the antibiotics in feed and sign a prescription if administered in water. Under FDA’s new policies, antibiotics will not be used for growth promotion. Click here for the agency’s announcement and related documents.