Producing healthy pigs is essential for food safety, animal well-being, and the competitiveness of the swine industry. Antibiotics play an important role in the production of healthy pigs. Losing the freedom to choose our individual antibiotic programs would have a crippling effect on the pork industry. To keep the government from mandating how we manage disease, the industry must prove we are using antibiotics responsibly.

The objectives of this project were to develop a private, user-friendly prescription management tool to ease the paperwork burden on veterinarians and producers, provide non-alterable legal documentation of judicious use of antibiotics, and develop a platform for collecting pig health outcomes. This project has resulted in a new product offered by GlobalVetLink, LC (http://www.globalvetlink.com/products/evrx). It provides a secure non-alterable record of the veterinary-client patient relationship (VCPR) and a record of the vet’s drug use recommendations or prescription. The final document of record is available to any authorized user with internet access.

 
This tool will help support two of the NPB’s Take Care program’s Responsible Use Principles:
a. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of all uses of antibiotics.
b. Use antibiotics only when they provide measurable benefits.