Veterinary Drug Residues

General

An increase in the use of veterinary drugs, including growth promoters, is a predictable consequence of expanded food animal production efforts. Unfortunately, many of the least developed countries suffer from a lack of effective regulatory control of their use. In the developed world, national legislation and international trade agreements dictate required withdrawal periods before slaughter and/or maximum permissible residue levels (MRLs) for the consumable parts (meat, milk, etc.) for an increasing number of veterinary drugs. The use of hormonal growth promoters and beta-agonists is either prohibited (European Union) or strongly regulated (e.g. USA, Canada andAustralia). Producer compliance with these regulations is monitored by national testing laboratories according to nationally or internationally accepted sampling protocols and assay methods. Within the European Union a group of European Union Community Reference Laboratories have responsibility for the effectiveness of the analytical residue control programmes (methods, materials). This responsibility is directed towards both the EU Member States and countries trading with the EU. In order to ensure a safe and saleable food product for both local consumption and international trade, developing countries also require the capacity to operate quality assured testing programmes for detection of these regulated residues in food animals and their products.

While assays for food contaminants (veterinary drug and pesticide residues, microbial pathogens, etc.) can be performed using a number of techniques at different stages of production, the ante-mortem or at-slaughter testing of livestock or livestock products (milk, meat, cheese, etc.) provides the most practical avenue for large-scale analysis both for home consumption or for export purposes.

Increasingly the approach is to use screening assays (radio-immunoassay, ELISA, thin layer chromatography) followed by confirmatory assays (high pressure liquid chromatography) on suspected positive samples. This cost-effective approach is ideally suited to the developing country situation, where the low-cost screening assay can be carried out in-country and if appropriate, confirmatory assays elsewhere.

Support for veterinary drug residue monitoring is part of a new initiative of the FAO/IAEA Sub-programme in Food Quality and Environmental Protection, including the establishment of the FAO/IAEA Training and Reference Centre for Food and Pesticide Control. The specific objective of the veterinary drug residue monitoring programme is to provide information, reference standards and practical technology in order to help developing countries meet FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Standards with respect to the residues of veterinary drugs in livestock and livestock commodities, primarily for trade purposes.

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