Regardless of how the fates of the Veterinary Feed Directive or Guidance 213 affect animal antibiotic use, Zoetis veterinarian Timothy Cummings does not expect any new antibiotic products for poultry to come down the pipeline anytime soon. It's not because pharmaceutical companies don't want to develop new products that could improve poultry health, he said, but because the process of gaining approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has become too cumbersome.
"Even though there are processes for new products to come online, FDA approval for new poultry antibiotic products that are classified as medically important is highly unlikely," Cummings said during the Poultry Production and Health Seminar on September 17. "Look at it from a pharmaceutical point of view. There are so many hoops they'll have to jump through, and even then, you might not get the product."
Cummings said even though it appears a resolution is near for the guidances for industry, regulatory hurdles will still exist. Socio-political challenges will also persist, as poultry processors will still get requests to not use antibiotics.
"This antibiotic issue is not over. We're coming to some sort of resolution to some degree with these guidances that are being implemented, but we're going to continue to face regulatory and socio-political challenges. Just because some of these guidances are going to pass, you'll still get requests to not use antibiotics."
