New CFMV and MAPA Guidelines: What Changed in 2025–2026 and What Your Clinic Must Adjust

If you felt that Brazilian veterinary regulation moved faster over the past months, you were right. Between July 2025 and September 2026, the Federal Council of Veterinary Medicine (CFMV) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) published a set of rules that hit small animal practice directly — from what must be written in the medical record to what can (and cannot) be done at the patient's home.

This post gathers what changed, when it took effect and, above all, what it requires you to adjust in practice.

The big picture

1. The medical record is now an auditable document

CFMV Resolution 1.653/2025 amended Resolution 1.321/2020 and is by far the change that touches daily work the most:

• Expanded mandatory content. Records must now include the account given by the animal's owner, a detailed log of procedures performed — with date, time and identification of the professional who performed them — and copies of complementary, laboratory or imaging exams.
• Deadline for providing copies. Delivery used to be immediate upon request; now the deadline is up to five business days, extendable to thirty business days in justified cases or when third-party exams are involved.
• Waiver required in every case. A signed release is now required whenever the owner decides to take the animal out of the clinic or hospital before medical discharge, regardless of case severity. The previous rule applied only when there was imminent risk of death.
• Retention. Records must be archived, on paper or digitally, for at least five years after the date of the last appointment — including after the patient's death.
• Standardized terminology. "Tutor" and "owner" are replaced in records, reports and forms by the official term for the person responsible for the animal.
• Microchip. The rule spells out the concept (subcutaneous use, linked to a database) and reinforces that implantation is exclusive to veterinarians.

The practical effect is clear: the record stopped being a summary of what you remember after the shift and became a reconstructible log, with authorship and timestamps. Whoever documents by habit won't feel it; whoever documents "when there's time" is exposed.

2. Home care is no longer a grey area

Published on 21 January 2026, CFMV Resolution 1.690/2026 regulates home veterinary care for small animals nationwide. It defines home care as veterinary practice performed where the animal lives — shared spaces such as condominium common areas, squares and parks are outside the concept.

Allowed at home: animal identification, patient history, physical examination, diagnosis, prescription, treatments, vaccination, issuing documents, requesting exams, preventive actions and guidance to the owner.

Prohibited at home: surgical procedures (except superficial sutures, biological sample collection and abscess drainage), general anesthesia (except for euthanasia), blood transfusion, deep catheterization and injectable chemotherapy.

The activity is exclusive to veterinarians duly registered with the CFMV/CRMV system, and the regional council may request records, reports and clarifications about the work at any time. In other words: whoever works at home visits must leave the patient's house with the record finished, not with a promise to write it later.

3. Companion birds: feather trimming with technical criteria

CFMV Resolution 1.714/2026, dated 28 August 2026 and published on 1 September, sets technical, ethical and animal welfare criteria to guide the indication and performance of wing feather trimming in companion birds. It defines when the procedure may be indicated and reinforces that the decision rests on the veterinarian's assessment. If you see birds, both the indication and its justification must be documented.

4. MAPA and antimicrobials: the bill lands on the prescription

Two ordinances tightened the rules in 2026:

• Ordinance SDA/MAPA 1.600, of 13 April 2026 — bans registration, import and use, in animals destined for human consumption, of products containing antimicrobial active ingredients classified as reserved for human use under WHO criteria.
• Ordinance SDA/MAPA 1.617/2026, published on 27 April — bans nationwide the import, manufacture, sale and use of performance-enhancing additives containing antimicrobials important to human or veterinary medicine, including avoparcin, bacitracins and virginiamycin. Products made or imported before it took effect may be sold for up to 180 days.

Therapeutic use of antibiotics with a veterinary prescription to treat sick animals remains allowed. The correct reading is not "antibiotics were banned", but rather: antimicrobials are being pushed back to where they always belonged — inside a documented veterinary act with clinical justification.

Even though these ordinances target livestock production, the direction holds for dog and cat practice: traceable prescriptions, justified choices and, whenever possible, culture and susceptibility testing. The Guide to Rational Use of Antimicrobials for Dogs and Cats, produced by MAPA together with the CFMV, remains the practical reference.

5. Pet food: mycotoxin limits in force since July 2026

Ordinance SDA/MAPA 1.412/2025 set maximum mycotoxin limits for dog and cat food: 10 µg/kg for aflatoxin B1 and 20 µg/kg for total aflatoxins. Above those values the product is deemed unfit. The rule took effect on 1 July 2026 and had technical input from the CFMV — before it, there was no specific parameter for this product category.

For clinics the takeaway is simple and useful: when clinical signs suggest food-related intoxication, record the brand, batch and expiry date of the food in the patient's chart. That detail is what turns a suspicion into traceability.

Checklist for the coming days

1. Review your record template: owner's account, procedures with date/time/authorship and attached exams — all covered?
2. Update the discharge waiver form — it now applies to every case.
3. Standardize terminology across documents, forms and software.
4. Define the workflow for delivering record copies within five business days.
5. If you do home visits, check your procedure list against the 1.690/2026 prohibitions.
6. Confirm every antimicrobial prescription carries a documented clinical justification.

Before you apply any of this

This is a practical summary, not a substitute for reading the rules. Before changing internal processes, check the full text of the resolutions on the CFMV website and of the ordinances on MAPA's portal — and follow your regional council's announcements, which usually carry local enforcement guidance.

Sources: CRMV-SP — New CFMV resolution expands mandatory record information · CFMV — How far does home veterinary care go? · CFMV — Criteria on wing feather trimming in companion birds · MAPA — New rules for antimicrobial use in animal production · MAPA — Mycotoxin limits in dog and cat food