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FDA Tests Turn Up Dairy Farmers BreakingThe Law On AntibioticsMARCH 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'treceive antibiotics unless they are actually sick. That's because drug residuesimmediately 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 anytruckload that tests positive is rejected. So when cows are treated, farmers discardtheir milk for several days until the residues disappear.

Yet a new report from the Food and Drug Administration reveals that a few farmers areslipping through a hole in this enforcement net. These farmers are using antibioticsthat the routine tests don't try to detect, because the drugs aren't supposed to be usedon dairy cows at all.

The FDA looked for 31 different drugs in samples of milk from almost 2,000 dairyfarms. About half of the farms the "targeted" group had come under suspicion forsending cows to slaughter that turned out to have drug residues in their meat. Theother 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 therandomly collected samples, contained drug residues. An antibiotic called Florfenicolwas the most common drug detected, but 11 other drugs also turned up. Perhaps mostdisturbing: None of the drugs that the FDA detected are approved for use in lactatingdairy cows.

Because the survey was carried out for research purposes, the samples werecollected anonymously, and the FDA cannot send investigators to the farms to find outwhat 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 FDAdetected: Ciproflaxacin and Sulfamethazine.

In the case of other drugs, he says, the situation is more complicated. It's illegal forfarmers to use those drugs on their own, but veterinarians are allowed to authorizetheir use in dairy cows under certain strict conditions. Veterinarians also are supposed

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to ensure that no residues enter the food supply. For whatever reason, that veterinarysafeguard didn't work in these cases.

Dr. William Flynn, deputy director for science policy in the FDA's Center for VeterinaryMedicine, chose to focus on the fact that the violations were uncommon. "These areencouraging 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. Thiscould include testing all milk for a larger number of antibiotics.

Morgan Scott, a veterinary epidemiologist at Texas A&M University, noted that a smallnumber of farmers, through their reckless use of drugs, may end up imposingsubstantial costs on all other dairy farmers.

"That, to me, is tragic, that some farmers don't think that keeping the reputation of theindustry intact is a priority," he says.

antibiotics in animals dairy industry

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