The Veterinary Feed Directive According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when a new animal drug application is submitted, the drug is evaluated for safety and effectiveness. As part of the review process, they determine whether the drug will be an over-the-counter (OTC) drug, a prescription (Rx) drug, or a Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) drug that is limited to use in or on animal feed. The VFD was created in 1996; it is essentially a license for a producer to use a medication (VFD drug) in the feed of food producing animals.
Animal Health Information
Vaccines for Sheep
Heritage Animal Health
Vaccines for Sheep Make no mistake, vaccinations in sheep are an economically important tool. Unfortunately, it is difficult to create a one-size-fits-all protocol. Each flock in different regions of the country will have a different set of circumstances. The following vaccinations are a good place to start whether you are re-evaluating your current vaccine system or creating one from scratch.
Fall Processing
Heritage Animal Health
Fall Processing “Processing calves” can have a lot of meanings, but the phrase takes me back 25 years to the San Joaquin Valley in California, branding fall born calves on a chilly winter morning. We would start saddling horses at the crack of dawn with homemade cinnamon rolls warming and coffee perking on the branding pot. Our lunch was tucked away in a cooler as we hoped to eat before two o’clock. Nowadays, processing calves on our farm is a lot less nostalgic and a bit more mechanical. The horses have been replaced with a four-wheeler and a hydraulic chute; hot brands have been replaced with electronic identification (EID) tags; and the branding pot is a Keurig. No more ropes; no more chinks. But some things haven’t changed; while practicing gentle handling, we still use individual identification, strategic vaccination practices, parasite control, sanitary castration, dehorning when necessary and good old-fashioned record keeping. These practices can all be viewed as a broad definition of calf processing. Our beef industry has widely employed the use of dehorned animals (polled gene); we no longer need to dehorn on our farm. Organized beef quality assurance (BQA) programs bring proper management techniques and a commitment to quality to the beef industry. Our breed registries provide us with tons of useable data to assist us in making smart management decisions. A lot has changed in 25 years, as we have more technology and information available to us.
Fecal Egg Count Reduction Tests (FECRT) for Horses
Heritage Animal Health
Fecal Egg Count Reduction Tests (FECRT) for Horses As a veterinarian, I am unable to look at your horse from over the fence and give you an idea of his worm burden. There are just not any reliable visual factors directly associated with adult worm numbers by looking or listening from the outside. Adult parasites, or worms that reside in your horse’s digestive tract replicate by laying eggs: sometimes thousands of eggs per day. Examining a gram of fresh fecal material allows us to quantify the number of eggs found; the fecal egg count is expressed as “per gram” of feces.