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Dairy Warned for Antibiotic Use

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

The dairy farm at Road 3, Box 73 near Columbus Cross Roads, PA is owned by John B. Yurkanin.

The dairyman received a "Warning Letter" from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dated April 1, that was made public Tuesday, charging the dairy operation with violations of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

It is a common violation for dairies.  Kirk Sooter, FDA's Philadelphia district director, said in the letter that the dairy sold an animal for slaughter as food that was adulterated because its edible tissue were found to contain a new animal drug at unacceptable levels.

Specifically, FDA's Sooter said Yurkanin on Sept. 14, 2009 sold a dairy cow identified by a specific tag number for slaughter for human consumption.  It was slaughtered the next day, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) took tissue samples and subjected them to analysis.

FSIS found the presence of the animal antibiotic sulfamethazine at 4.02 parts per million (ppm) in the liver tissue and 1.31 ppm in the muscle tissue.  FDA's limit for sulfamethazine in any edible tissue is 0.1 ppm.

"Our investigation also found you hold animals under conditions that are so inadequate that medicated animals bearing potentially harmful drug residues are likely to enter the food supply," FDA wrote the Pennsylvania dairy.

"For example, you failed to maintain complete treatment records.  Your records did not include the drug used, the dosage amount, the route of administration, and who administered the drug."

FDA found the farm was using a drug called "Super Sulfa III" without following the directions found on the label.

Full post as published by Food Safety News on April 28, 2010 (boomark / email).