Top dressing ban
Top dressing ban
TOP dressing animal feed with medicated premixes has been deemed illegal by the EU, a law which will be actively enforced later this year, according to an article in Vet Record.
Following a UK visit earlier this year, the ECs Food and Vet Office recommended vets should no longer dispense medicated premixes to producers for top dressing feed.
The rule will apply to any livestock farm where feed is top dressed, says Mac Johnston of the Royal Vet College.
Prof Johnston says top dressing has weaknesses as a method for administering medication. "It assumes all animals in a group eat an average amount of the top dressing, when some may eat more and some considerably less."
From November this year, the Vet Medicines Directorate will tighten enforcement of legislation governing medicated feeds. Farms producing them will have to be approved by the Animal Medicines Inspectorate of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. *