Drug misuse on Minnesota dairy cows prompts federal warning

Two state farms were reprimanded for unsafe levels of antibiotics in animals. The 2 animals were pulled from slaughter lines after testing.

By LORA PABST, Star Tribune
Last update: November 20, 2009 - 11:32 PM

Two Minnesota cows that could have ended up on a dinner plate were pulled from slaughter lines after federal inspectors discovered dangerously high levels of antibiotics in both animals. In a rare move, federal officials sent stern warning letters to two central Minnesota dairy farms, which were among only 30 farms nationwide reprimanded so far this year for violating the rules governing how animal drugs can be used.

J&L Dairy, in Clarissa, Minn., sent a dairy cow to slaughter in March, even though it was drugged with 129 times the amount of penicillin allowed under federal regulations.

Another farm, Evergreen Acres Dairy, LLC, in Paynesville, Minn., was warned by the FDA last month, after one of its cows was found to have more than four times the allowed amount for a certain type of antibiotic. Further inspection found that the farm had misused 10 other drugs.

In letters to both farms, the FDA wrote that "you hold animals under conditions that are so inadequate that medicated animals bearing potentially harmful drug residues are likely to enter the food supply."

In the arena of meat safety, bacterial contamination gets the most attention because of the potential for deadly outbreaks of food-borne illness and massive recalls of tainted products.

Drug residues are less likely to cause immediate harm to consumers, but they can still be dangerous.

Jeff Bender, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Animal Health and Food Safety, said antibiotics and other animal drugs have been used on dairy farms for decades, mostly to treat udder infections. Strict federal standards and testing processes were put in place to make sure the drugs didn't remain in meat or milk of treated animals.

"We want to avoid the possibility that if a person were allergic to penicillin, that consumption of a product or milk from that animal would cause an allergic reaction," he said.

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