Veterinary prescriptions play a crucial role in the work of feed mills who produce livestock feeds containing medicating ingredients. The below materials are provided to assist veterinarians in delivering complete, accurate and compliant feed prescriptions.

Writing feed prescriptions: regulatory considerations

ANAC developed this quick reference document to provide veterinarians with an overview of the regulatory considerations for feed prescriptions. The document covers topics including:

• key components of compliant feed prescriptions
• differences between medicated and custom medicated feeds and the implications for feed mills
• helpful practices for writing feed prescriptions

Checklist of required items for veterinary feed prescriptions

Canadian regulations¹ lay out the elements that veterinary feed prescriptions must contain to be compliant. Use this checklist to verify that your feed prescription contains all the required information.

Veterinary prescription templates for livestock feeds

Veterinary prescriptions for drug premixes being mixed in feed must comply with Canadian regulations¹. Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and ANAC have developed fillable templates, by species, for use by veterinarians when writing veterinary feed prescriptions. The use of the templates is optional; however, they do include all elements required for a veterinary feed prescription to be compliant with applicable regulations.

Click the relevant button below to download a copy of the appropriate fillable PDF prescription template.

Antimicrobial stewardship

The Canadian feed industry recognizes the importance of using antimicrobials responsibly while ensuring optimal animal health and welfare. For more information on the use of antimicrobials in livestock feeds, visit our Antimicrobial Stewardship webpage.

¹The use of medicating ingredients within livestock feeds is primarily regulated under the authority of the Feeds Regulations, 2024 and the Food and Drug Regulations.