Chlortetracycline feed label defines a broad veterinary use profile across livestock and birds
The updated DailyMed label for DERACIN 100 MEAL places chlortetracycline in a highly regulated veterinary feed framework rather than an open-ended antimicrobial category. This is a Type A medicated article, intended for incorporation into feed, with directions that differ by species, disease target, and production setting. The drug is supplied as chlortetracycline calcium, described as equivalent to 100 grams chlortetracycline hydrochloride per pound, and the product is limited to oral use in dry feeds. Liquid medicated feed is explicitly excluded, which matters because feed stability, intake consistency, and dose uniformity are central to antimicrobial exposure in herd and flock medicine.
One sentence in the label carries the operational weight of the product: this is a feed drug, not a rescue treatment prepared at the bedside. The entire utility of the article depends on correct premixing, species-appropriate inclusion rates, and careful adherence to labeled duration limits.
Feed dilution and preblend steps are built into the label to reduce dosing error
The instructions begin with a simple but clinically important manufacturing step. One pound of Deracin 100 Meal is recommended to be diluted with 3 pounds of a feed ingredient to create a 4 pound working premix, and 2 pounds of that working premix are then used to prepare a preblend for a Type C feed containing 50 grams of chlortetracycline per ton of feed. The label also directs users to mix the required amount of medicated article with part of the feed ingredients to make a preblend before adding the remainder and mixing thoroughly. In large-animal practice, this sequencing is not cosmetic. Uneven dispersion can create subtherapeutic pockets of feed and overly concentrated pockets elsewhere, a problem that can frustrate antimicrobial control and complicate residue management.
The feed matrix itself becomes part of the pharmacology. Chlortetracycline works only if animals consume enough of the medicated ration to reach the labeled exposure range, and the product language reflects that reality repeatedly through feed rate, body weight, and duration limits.
Species-specific indications range from anaplasmosis to respiratory and enteric disease
The label spans cattle, swine, turkeys, ducks, chickens, sheep, and psittacine birds, with each indication tied to organisms susceptible to chlortetracycline. In cattle over 700 pounds, the product is indicated for control of active infection of anaplasmosis caused by Anaplasma marginale. Beef and non-lactating dairy cattle can receive the drug as an aid in the control of active anaplasmosis infection through free-choice feeds, with the added caveat that a medicated feed mill license is required when a proprietary formula or specification is used, and that free-choice formulations must be FDA approved.
For calves, beef cattle, and nonlactating dairy cattle, the label lists treatment of bacterial enteritis caused by Escherichia coli and bacterial pneumonia caused by Pasteurella multocida. Feed is limited to no more than 5 days, and the product may be mixed into the daily ration or applied as a top dress. The top-dress instruction is unusually specific: it must be spread uniformly over the ration and sufficient space must be provided so all cattle can eat at the same time. That detail speaks to feed behavior and social hierarchy in group-housed cattle, where dominant animals can consume a larger share if access is uneven.
In swine, the label covers control of porcine proliferative enteropathies, also called ileitis, caused by Lawsonia intracellularis, along with bacterial enteritis and bacterial pneumonia associated with Escherichia coli, Salmonella choleraesuis, and Pasteurella multocida. The label notes that the 10 mg per pound body weight per day level is approximately equivalent to 400 grams per ton, depending on feed consumption and body weight, and the feed period is limited to 14 days.
Turkeys are listed for control of complicating bacterial organisms associated with bluecomb, or transmissible enteritis and coronaviral enteritis, susceptible to chlortetracycline. The stated feed window is 7 to 14 days. That is a narrow antimicrobial corridor in a disease process that often involves mixed infectious pressure, not a single organism in isolation.
Poultry and small-animal avian use carry explicit public health warnings
The avian sections add another layer of urgency. In ducks, the drug is indicated for control and treatment of fowl cholera caused by Pasteurella multocida, with feed levels of 200 to 400 grams per ton and a feeding period not to exceed 21 days. Chickens are listed for infectious synovitis caused by Mycoplasma synoviae, chronic respiratory disease and air sac infection caused by Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Escherichia coli, and reduction of mortality due to Escherichia coli infections. Turkey poults not over 4 weeks of age are also included for reduction of mortality due to paratyphoid caused by Salmonella typhimurium.
The psittacine bird warning stands out because it is not merely a veterinary instruction; it is a zoonotic alert. Psittacosis, avian chlamydiosis, and ornithosis are identified as reportable communicable diseases transmissible between wild and domestic birds, other animals, and humans. Suspected or known infection with Chlamydia psittaci in parrots, macaws, and cockatoos is treated with 10 mg per gram of feed, continued for 45 days, with each bird consuming an amount of medicated feed equal to one-fifth of body weight daily. Clean cages and individual or paired housing are required during treatment. Prolonged therapy also carries a caution for aspergillosis.
Residue restrictions and withdrawal language shape the real-world limits of use
The residue section is where the label becomes most unforgiving. No withdrawal period is required when used according to label, but the product is not approved for female dairy cattle 20 months of age or older, including dry dairy cows. Use in those cattle may cause residues in milk and in calves born to those cows. A withdrawal period has not been established for pre-ruminating calves, and the drug must not be used in calves to be processed for veal. Ducks or turkeys producing eggs for human consumption are also excluded.
These restrictions are not footnotes. They determine whether a veterinarian can use the product at all in certain production classes and whether the resulting food animal can enter the human food chain under labeled conditions. The label also specifies storage below 25°C, with excursions permitted to 40°C, and advises tightly resealing opened bags. Product integrity matters because moisture, heat, and handling can alter a medicated article long before it reaches the feed mill.
Regulatory status keeps the product inside a controlled veterinary channel
The package is marketed by Pharmgate Animal Health under an abbreviated new animal drug application, with the category identified as a VFD Type A medicated article animal drug. Federal law restricts medicated feed containing this veterinary feed directive drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian. The principal display panel repeats the same warning and adds that the product is not for use in humans and should be kept out of reach of children.
For practicing veterinarians and production systems, the label’s message is direct: chlortetracycline remains a broad, species-diverse antimicrobial tool, but its value is inseparable from dose precision, feed compliance, residue discipline, and veterinary oversight. The most consequential limitations are already embedded in the label itself, especially the bans on certain dairy cattle, veal calves, and egg-laying waterfowl, along with the short treatment windows that constrain prolonged use.