Record keeping for antibiotics – farm animals and horses

Keeping records is a legal requirement  for all medicines, including antibiotics (and vaccines), administered to food-producing animals.

You must record:

  • Amounts given
  • Date(s) given
  • Batch numbers
  • Expiry dates
  • Withdrawal periods, where applicable
  • Date of first use on multi-dose medicines
  • These records must be kept for 5 years.

It is important to remember that horses (and ponies, donkeys, asses and zebras) are considered by law to be food-producing species in the European Union.