Food Animal Drug Regulations

FA Drug Regulation Summary

Food animal drugs are tricky

    • Pot bellied pigs have to follow pig rules
    • Camelids, sheep and goats are under MUMs rules and have more flexibility but are still food animals
    • Use FARAD and VetGram to identify prohibited drugs, ELDU allowances and withholding times
      • This can be very tricky for goats etc. – try to find a cattle version
      • You can contact FARAD and ask
    • Oral drugs in ruminants often don’t work. Meloxicam does
      • Use of meloxicam is a bit edgy. We justify it as a better analgesic and there are no FDA approved analgesics in food animals yet

To determine withholding

  • Typically count on 5 half-lives to clear a drug
  • If you double the drug amount, add 1 half life
  • Elimination is via the same process regardless of route of administration
    • if you can figure out the difference in peak values, that can help with half life calculations
      • Iv administration ->  high, fast peaks
      • IM administration -> slower peaks but generally same peak level
        • will take a bit longer to eliminate
      • PO administration – slower peaks and lower peaks
        • usually take less time to eliminate since not as much drug available

License

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Large Animal Surgery - Supplemental Notes Copyright © by Erin Malone, DVM, PhD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.