Health Canada’s Veterinary Drugs Directorate issued a stop sale order for carbadox in 2001 and in 2004, banned the legal sale of carbadox products in that country. Canada will allow the importation of products that may have been raised using carbadox, however a zero tolerance for residues of carbadox will now be enforced on imported pork products. The U.S. and Canada use different testing methods to detect carbadox residues in tissue. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will review a current study underway to validate the appropriate science-based testing methodology for the detection of carbadox. Until the study is completed, Health Canada’s Veterinary Drugs Directorate has issued an interim surveillance and testing program for carbadox.
Canada will conduct a test and release inspection, at their expense, at the border. In turn, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will continue to test for carbadox as planned in the National Residue Program. The FSIS has agreed to report and stop all shipments to Canada of products with occurrences of the following:
- Positive violative findings: more than 0.03 ppm from liver, violative residues according to U.S. standards, and
- Non-violative findings: 0.015-0.03 ppm from liver, non-violative according to U.S. standards, but product not shippable to Canada. Talking to your client – Suggested talking points for veterinarians.
- Canada is the 3rd largest export destination for U.S. pork and pork products, valued at $437 million in 2006. The impact of a product recall or any measure that in any way would restrict the export of U.S. pork and pork products would have a detrimental effect on the entire U.S. pork industry.
- Producers are being reminded to follow PQA Plus’ Good Production Practices when administering carbadox to pigs, and specifically to:
- Follow the product manufacturer’s instructions for mixing, administration and withdrawal.
- Identify all animals and maintain accurate records of all animals receiving carbadox to ensure that withdrawal times are completed before animals are marketed for human consumption.
- Make sure all feeders, mixers and other equipment are completely purged and cleaned between batches of feed to avoid cross-contamination of feed.
- Empty feeders and bins between groups of animals to ensure animals that are not supposed to receive carbadox do not have access to it.
- Clearly identify all animal health products, including carbadox, and all feeds and medicated feeds.
- Communicate with all of your workers the importance of following appropriate withdrawal times for carbadox and all other animal health products.
- Contact the herd veterinarian if you have questions about carbadox, its use or withdrawal.
- Producers can visit http://www.pork.org/Producers/JapanMRL.aspx to find information about withdrawal periods required to satisfy the domestic and Japanese markets, for many animal health products used in pork production. Producers should follow label instructions if a specific product’s guidelines are not on the Pork Checkoff’s Web site. [Ed. Note: the AASV Pharmaceutical Issues Committee has recommended that products not listed in the database not be used in the finisher phase or the breeding herd to insure compliance with the MRLs. The manufacturer?s label instructions may not be sufficient to avoid a violative residue under the current Japanese MRL requirements.]
For more information, contact the Pork Checkoff at (800) 456-PORK.