Should the veterinarian have a mechanism to prescribe drugs in feed?

Abstract

The import of the topic which we are discussing this morning varies greatly with type of practice activity involved, or to be more precise, the species of food animal involved with the practice activity. A food animal practitioner whose work in herd health maintenance deals primarily with the porcine species would undoubtedly manifest the strongest interest in the issue of using feed as a vehicle to provide therapeutic pharmaceuticals to animals. Since our practice activity has very little to do with swine and focuses primarily on bovines, the comments will be presented from that viewpoint. The bovine activity at Harbor Beach is primarily dairy cattle. In addition, I personally am involved in herd health maintenance practice activity with cattle feedyards throughout the state. This involvement addresses an annual turn-over rate of some 75,000 feeder cattle.