Dr Ian Brown, Chairman of the Advisory Committee
on Animal Feedingstuffs advising the Food Standards
Agency and UK Ministers of State, writes about the
challenges of animal prescriptions. For a physician, scientist
and advocate of a ‘one health’ policy for both humans and
animals, all medicines must be used judiciously. Stringent

regulations apply to the medication of feed, with correct
dosing and mixing to avoid carry-over of a medicated feed
to a batch of non-target feed. This is where the prescription
of a medicine for a group of animals differs significantly
from the more usual prescribing practice in human bacterial
infections.