Prohibited Drugs and the Reasons They are Prohibited

[Shadrach]

A bit of a tall order but it would be good to seperate out those drugs/compounds that are restricted because adequate testing hasn't been done yet.

 

[casportpony]

I hear you, but unless the prescribing vet knows that the bute isn't being used on cattle it can be. Even dairy cows.

Bute *can* be given to cattle. It's not supposed to be given to dairy cattle that are older than 20 months.

Metronidazole is the only thing other than thyme tincture I've seen recommended to get rid of canker in chickens.

It and the others in that family of drugs are also the only drugs that treat blackhead (histomoniasis).

Not arguing, just trying to figure out how they can prohibit certain drugs that they can't really control. You know what I mean?

I do know.

Source - https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/are-banned-drugs-in-your-meat/

"How Do Banned Drugs Get Into Meat?​

That's not always clear, but experts offer some possibilities.

Background exposure. With drugs prescribed so widely in humans and livestock, trace amounts from runoff or excrement can end up in soil and water, says Gail Hansen, D.V.M., a veterinarian who focuses on public health. That residue could reach the water or feed that animals consume, and ultimately be detected in meat.
Another explanation is that certain drugs may occur naturally in the environment. Chloramphenicol, in fact, was originally developed from a compound found in soil.

Improper use. Drug residue can also be found in meat if an animal was given the wrong dose or not enough time passed before slaughter to let the drug clear the animal's system.

Counterfeit drugs. A 2017 report, "Illegal Veterinary Medicines," by the nonprofit group Health for Animals noted that counterfeit veterinary drugs, which mainly come from China and India, could threaten human health "through consumption of food from animals treated with these products." And last year the FDA warned about U.S. ports receiving shipments of several drugs—including chloramphenicol, ketamine, and phenylbutazone—that were labeled for manufacturing but could be intended for unapproved veterinary uses.

Contaminated feed. Several industry insiders say this is a particularly likely explanation. Jonathan Buttram, a farmer who raised chickens for many years, says that feed often contains parts of other animals, such as cattle. And animals turned into feed could be more likely to have been sick and treated with drugs prior to slaughter, says Jennifer Burton, D.V.M., a veterinarian who focuses on sustainable farming. Residue from these medications could make it into feed, and then into the animals that consume it.
Contamination could also occur if a drug approved for nonfood animals gets introduced into feed for a food animal, perhaps because a feed mill is not cleaned well between uses or because feed bags get mixed up, Hansen says.

Intentional misuse. Farmers we contacted could not or would not point to specific instances, but some said that producers sometimes misuse veterinary drugs to speed growth, increase lean protein, or treat sick animals.

"If you're asking, ‘Do people do it?' I would say, ‘Do people speed?' " says Will Harris, owner of White Oak Pastures, an organic farm in Bluffton, Ga. "The answer is yes—if they think they can get away with it." He points out that most meat never gets checked, so producers sometimes "succumb to temptation, especially when there is a financial reward."

For example, cattle that can't stand on their own are not allowed to be used for meat. So, Basu says, lame cattle are sometimes given phenylbutazone—a painkiller—shortly before slaughter, so they can "get the animal through the slaughterhouse gates without anybody looking closer."

There also appears to be an active black market for veterinary drugs. In March 2017, a Virginia man who pleaded guilty to selling veterinary medications illegally said during his sentencing hearing that he was hardly alone: "It didn't make what I done right, but this stuff has been traded out of the back of vehicles forever."

The Struggle for Enforcement​

FSIS testing does sometimes lead to companies being cited for violations. But these citations are usually for drugs, mostly antibiotics, that are approved for use in animals and simply exceed their residue limits.

Very few violations are for drugs that should never be in meat. Yet CR's analysis, which focused on just four drugs, identified numerous samples that appeared to contain detectable amounts of these zero-tolerance drugs, both above and below the FSIS regulatory threshold.

Charles Benbrook, the Johns Hopkins researcher, suspects that the FSIS may set high thresholds in part because it doesn't have the resources to deal with the extra violations that could result if it used lower levels.

Other experts point to what they see as additional shortcomings in FSIS testing and enforcement practices.

For example, Baynes questions why the FSIS has not validated its test for all the drugs CR looked at, especially phenylbutazone in beef, because it's known that the drug has been misused in cattle, and other scientists have been able to validate similar tests in beef.
And Basu and Baynes worry that the FSIS tests often focus on the wrong parts of animals. To detect improper drug use, they say, you should sample kidneys or livers, where drugs tend to accumulate. Yet the FSIS more often tests muscle. The FSIS says it tests muscle because that's what consumers usually eat. But Basu and Baynes say that also means that improper drug use is less likely to be discovered.

Even when violations are reported, Basu believes the FDA's penalties are often ineffective. FDA officials say that penalties can include warning letters, injunctions, seizures, and placing repeat violators on a publicly reported list.

But that rarely leads to changes in how meat producers operate, Basu says. "I've been to farms where they are proud to get letters from FDA," he says. "They cover the holes in the barn with the letters. And just keep on doing it.""

​

 

[casportpony]

A bit of a tall order but it would be good to seperate out those drugs/compounds that are restricted because adequate testing hasn't been done yet.

Here in the US, there are drugs that are "approved/labeled" for poultry. For example:

• oxytetracycline
• fenbendazole
• tylosin

And there are the ones that are prohibited:
Source: https://www.avma.org/extralabel-drug-use-and-amduca-faq

Spoiler: Prohibited Drugs

A prohibition may be a general ban on the extralabel use of the drug or class of drugs or may be limited to a specific species, indication, dosage form, route of administration, or combination of factors. To date, the ELDU of the following drugs has been prohibited in food-producing animals, regardless of whether or not the criteria for ELDU are met:

1. Chloramphenicol;
2. Clenbuterol;
3. Diethylstilbestrol (DES);
4. Dimetridazole;
5. Ipronidazole;
6. Other nitroimidazoles;
7. Furazolidone;
8. Nitrofurazone;
9. Sulfonamide drugs in lactating dairy cattle (except approved use of sulfadimethoxine, sulfabromomethazine, and sulfaethoxypyridazine);
10. Fluoroquinolones;
11. Glycopeptides;
12. Phenylbutazone in female dairy cattle 20 months of age or older.
13. Cephalosporin (excluding cephapirin) use in cattle, swine, chickens and turkeys:
    • Using cephalosporin drugs at unapproved dose levels, frequencies, durations or routes of administration is prohibited
    • Using cephalosporin drugs in cattle, swine, chickens or turkeys that are not approved for use in that species (e.g., cephalosporin drugs intended for humans or companion animals);
    • Using cephalosporin drugs for disease prevention

The following drugs, or classes of drugs, approved for treating or preventing influenza A in humans, are prohibited from ELDU in chickens, turkeys, and ducks regardless of whether or not ELDU criteria are met:

1. Adamantanes;
2. Neuraminidase inhibitors.

Extralabel use of drugs in treating food-producing animals for improving rate of weight gain, feed efficiency, or other production purposes is prohibited under AMDUCA.

Then there are all of the other drugs like amoxicillin, ceftiofur, ivermectin, valbazen, etc. Those are not labeled for use in poultry, but they *can* be used.

 

[GulfstreamGal1]

I just found this excellent pdf that explains the reasons the prohibited drugs were prohibited.
http://www.wifss.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/FDA/fdacoursefinal1/Prohibited Drugs_new.pdf

Thank you for posting this article. I am more or less brand new to peas and have close to 50 and unexpectedly hatched around 17. I had coccid and Blackhead come through in August (chickens) after I left for a week. I instantly took myself and my purple boy breeder to the vet requesting metronidazole, albon, Valbazen, and Baytril. My vet absolutely refused to prescribe me metronidazole even though he knew it would save the life of my birds. He refused to prescribe anything except 90 mg of ponazuril which he charged me over $500 for. Needless to say I found what I needed and did save all but one adult and some of the babies. FYI you can buy 100 mg of ponazuril on chewy if you have a script for $64.59. I live in a really small town in SC and have used this wonderful vet since I moved here in 2012. So the vet and owner retired and a husband/wife vet team bought the practice and have since quadrupled or more the prices of everything, wont work with chewy or any other pet pharmacy, and insist on doing anything they can that they can charge you anything they want and then give you a written prescription and leave you to send it in -- pharmacies wont accept faxes from private citizens. He told me metronidazole or flagyl as it is known in the dog world is one of seven drugs that is black boxed for "meat birds" and that the poultry inspector (gatekeeper to NPIP) or whatever her title is at Clemson University (in SC) had told him he couldn't prescribe metronidazole, sulfa drugs (Albon) or even Baytril which I had requested -- to or for pet birds, exotic birds, or meat birds. And he was classifying peafowl as a meat bird. First metronidazole is very common and all dog breeders have it on hand for giardia which can be in the city water or any water anywhere. That is why those of who show dogs bring bottled water with us always.
@casportpony @KsKingBee and anyone else who works with state officials
I would like to know if peas are classified as "meat birds" in all states?

My vet bill that day was over $800. They did save my purple boy's life, but the end result was that I am no longer a client there. I wrote an honest review of my experience on Yelp and have officially been banned from their practice. I now have another vet that is just as expensive but only a mile from my house. I guess me, my 50 peas, 30 chickens, 3 Great Pyrs, and 5 cats and $$$ are welcome. I managed to get all of the meds either at Jeffers or the Toltrazuril store anyway.

As a side note, one of the drugs mentioned is Chloramphenicol. That is some heavy stuff. Over 20 years ago my Great Dane had flesh eating strep on his tail. Baytril had stopped working. We were prescribed the Chloramphenicol just long enough to knock the infection down so we could amputate the tail. I was told to always wear latex gloves even holding the bottle. I am surprised it is still used at all.

 

[KsKingBee]

Thank you for posting this article. I am more or less brand new to peas and have close to 50 and unexpectedly hatched around 17. I had coccid and Blackhead come through in August (chickens) after I left for a week. I instantly took myself and my purple boy breeder to the vet requesting metronidazole, albon, Valbazen, and Baytril. My vet absolutely refused to prescribe me metronidazole even though he knew it would save the life of my birds. He refused to prescribe anything except 90 mg of ponazuril which he charged me over $500 for. Needless to say I found what I needed and did save all but one adult and some of the babies. FYI you can buy 100 mg of ponazuril on chewy if you have a script for $64.59. I live in a really small town in SC and have used this wonderful vet since I moved here in 2012. So the vet and owner retired and a husband/wife vet team bought the practice and have since quadrupled or more the prices of everything, wont work with chewy or any other pet pharmacy, and insist on doing anything they can that they can charge you anything they want and then give you a written prescription and leave you to send it in -- pharmacies wont accept faxes from private citizens. He told me metronidazole or flagyl as it is known in the dog world is one of seven drugs that is black boxed for "meat birds" and that the poultry inspector (gatekeeper to NPIP) or whatever her title is at Clemson University (in SC) had told him he couldn't prescribe metronidazole, sulfa drugs (Albon) or even Baytril which I had requested -- to or for pet birds, exotic birds, or meat birds. And he was classifying peafowl as a meat bird. First metronidazole is very common and all dog breeders have it on hand for giardia which can be in the city water or any water anywhere. That is why those of who show dogs bring bottled water with us always.
@casportpony @KsKingBee and anyone else who works with state officials
I would like to know if peas are classified as "meat birds" in all states?

My vet bill that day was over $800. They did save my purple boy's life, but the end result was that I am no longer a client there. I wrote an honest review of my experience on Yelp and have officially been banned from their practice. I now have another vet that is just as expensive but only a mile from my house. I guess me, my 50 peas, 30 chickens, 3 Great Pyrs, and 5 cats and $$$ are welcome. I managed to get all of the meds either at Jeffers or the Toltrazuril store anyway.

As a side note, one of the drugs mentioned is Chloramphenicol. That is some heavy stuff. Over 20 years ago my Great Dane had flesh eating strep on his tail. Baytril had stopped working. We were prescribed the Chloramphenicol just long enough to knock the infection down so we could amputate the tail. I was told to always wear latex gloves even holding the bottle. I am surprised it is still used at all.

There are good vets and bad vets, sorry you had that experience with a real POS. Metronidazole can also be found in the fish department in the big pet store chains used for fish. Safeguard and Valbazen are found in the farm stores as is Tylan 200. I think the only time in the last year I have used an antibiotic was on an injured bird. Toltrazuril can be found online. You don't really need a vet for the common medications we need for peas. I do have an awesome vet that will prescribe anything I need and realizes that we do not eat our peas so that is not a problem for us. Unreasonable vets using the 'meat bird' excuse are just trying to soak you for another drug that may not work as well so you keep coming back. Same thing with the needing to see the bird when they don't know the first thing about birds.