MUMS Meeting Attendance

On Thursday, September 8, 2005, the Executive Committee held the weekly conference call and one of the agenda items included a request to President Gallaway from Dr. Darrel K. Styles, DVM, PhD of Texas A&M University to support his attendance at a meeting that is of great interest to aviculturists.

Dr. Styles’ request stated:

“This letter is in regard to my possible attendance of the MUMS (minor use/minor species) meeting hosted by the American Veterinary Medical Association in Chicago on October 2nd. Both the Association of Avian Veterinarians and the American Federation of Aviculture would benefit by having a representative at this meeting which will discuss MUMS and address means to appropriately provide input to the federal Food and Drug Administration regarding regulations that will affect the use of drugs in minor species. The FDA is now in the process formulating regulations for MUMS that will directly impact avian practice and the avicultural industry.

This meeting will address the issues of "designation", a means of making novel drugs eligible for grant funding for development in minor species (final rule to be implemented August 2006); "indexing", a method of providing legal status to drugs that have traditionally been unable to obtain FDA approval (final rule to be implemented August 2007); and "conditional approval", an approach that allows drug manufacturers to market their drug after meeting minimal safety standards while efficacy testing is ongoing for a five year period. However, the most important component of the meeting is determine how our industry can favorably
influence the impending regulations so that practice latitude is not encumbered. Methods of how to to submit comment to the FDA will be discussed and how the language should be crafted to meet federal regulatory guidelines.

It is vital that our industry be represented during this session whether I or someone else attends considering that virtually all the drugs we use in birds, with perhaps the exception of tetracycline, are not labeled for use in avian species.”


Dr. Styles requested that AFA and the Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV) split the cost of the trip, which meant a $226 expense for AFA. After a brief discussion, the Executive Committee agreed that this was an extremely worthwhile expense and authorized it based on the following bylaw:

Dr. Styles will represent our and AAV’s constituency and put forward any concerns we may have to the appropriate authorities. He will submit an official report of the result upon his return to each respective Board of Directors.