eating and health

foodways

producers

food for thought

for foodies

FDA Tests Turn Up Dairy Farmers Breaking

The Law On Antibiotics
MARCH 08, 2015

3:02 PM ET

DAN CHARLES

FDA tests have turned up residues suggesting a few dairy farmers are illegally using antibiotics.
iStockphoto

When it comes to the current controversy over antibiotic use on farm animals, milk is

in a special category.
Lactating cows, unlike hogs, cattle or chickens that are raised for their meat, don't
receive antibiotics unless they are actually sick. That's because drug residues
immediately appear in the cow's milk a violation of food safety rules.
Milk shipments are tested for six of the most widely used antibiotics, and any
truckload that tests positive is rejected. So when cows are treated, farmers discard
their milk for several days until the residues disappear.
Yet a new report from the Food and Drug Administration reveals that a few farmers are
slipping through a hole in this enforcement net. These farmers are using antibiotics
that the routine tests don't try to detect, because the drugs aren't supposed to be used
on dairy cows at all.
The FDA looked for 31 different drugs in samples of milk from almost 2,000 dairy
farms. About half of the farms the "targeted" group had come under suspicion for
sending cows to slaughter that turned out to have drug residues in their meat. The
other farms were a random sample of all milk producers.
Just over 1 percent of the samples from the "targeted" group, and 0.4 percent of the
randomly collected samples, contained drug residues. An antibiotic called Florfenicol
was the most common drug detected, but 11 other drugs also turned up. Perhaps most
disturbing: None of the drugs that the FDA detected are approved for use in lactating
dairy cows.
Because the survey was carried out for research purposes, the samples were
collected anonymously, and the FDA cannot send investigators to the farms to find out
what happened.
Mike Apley, a researcher at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine,
says that it is "totally illegal" for dairy farmers to use two of the drugs that the FDA
detected: Ciproflaxacin and Sulfamethazine.
In the case of other drugs, he says, the situation is more complicated. It's illegal for
farmers to use those drugs on their own, but veterinarians are allowed to authorize
their use in dairy cows under certain strict conditions. Veterinarians also are supposed

to ensure that no residues enter the food supply. For whatever reason, that veterinary
safeguard didn't work in these cases.
Dr. William Flynn, deputy director for science policy in the FDA's Center for Veterinary
Medicine, chose to focus on the fact that the violations were uncommon. "These are
encouraging findings," Flynn tells The Salt. The low number of violations indicates that
"things are working well."
Flynn says the FDA is working on plans to stop illegal drug use by dairy farmers. This
could include testing all milk for a larger number of antibiotics.
Morgan Scott, a veterinary epidemiologist at Texas A&M University, noted that a small
number of farmers, through their reckless use of drugs, may end up imposing
substantial costs on all other dairy farmers.
"That, to me, is tragic, that some farmers don't think that keeping the reputation of the
industry intact is a priority," he says.

antibiotics in animals

dairy industry

Voluptuous Veg: Can Food Porn Seed Lust For Healthy Eating?
March 6, 2015

More From The Salt

F

&

Voluptuous Veg: Can Food Porn Seed Lust For Healthy

Eating?

Should Labels Say Meat Was Made In USA? Ranchers,

Meatpackers Disagree

Google Thinks We're Clueless About Cocktails, And It

Wants To Help

Comments

SHARE

About
Subscribe
NPR Food T wit t e r
Support NPR
help

contact

2015 npr

terms of use

privacy

text-only