Center for Veterinary Medicine

The mission statement for FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) reads, “Protecting Human and Animal Health.” To achieve this broad mission, CVM: - Ensures animal drugs are safe and effective, properly made, and adequately labeled and packaged; - Ensures that when food-producing animals, such as cattle and chickens, are treated with an animal drug, food made from those animals, such as meat, milk, and eggs, are safe for people to eat; - Ensures that new animal food additives are safe and serve their intended function; - Educates pet owners, animal producers, veterinarians, and the animal health industry about the products we regulate; - Monitors the safety of all types of animal food for all types of animals; - Monitors and investigates side effects and product quality problems that are reported for animal food, drugs, and devices (like thermometers and pacemakers) once they are sold on the market; - Carries out research to support our policies and regulatory decisions about animal food, drugs, and devices; - Works to make more animal drugs legally available for minor species, such as ferrets and fish; and for minor (infrequent and limited) uses in a major species, such as horses and dogs; - Works to support and spur the development of new technologies and approaches that address health needs across human, animal and environmental health sectors; and - Leads, coordinates, and manages CVM’s international activities in collaboration with relevant FDA Centers and Offices, as well as FDA’s international regulatory counterparts.