U.S. Department of Agriculture officials are urging FDA to step in and provide money for a database, which contains FDA information on animal drugs, that without additional funding will shut down at the end of September. Congress authorized $2.5 million annually to support the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) for five years, but FARAD has yet to get the money so its academic administrators are asking that FDA step in to fund their activities.
The Farm Bill passed earlier this year authorized $2.5 million for FARAD for each fiscal year 2008 through 2012. But the money has yet to be appropriated and FARAD co-administrator Alistair Webb at the University of Florida says he is concerned. He says FDA officials have said they are considering stretching their budget to sustain FARAD.
The database is designed to provide veterinarians, animal farms, feed producers and extension specialists with information on avoiding drug, pesticide, and environmental contaminant residue problems.
FARAD has been funded since its inception in 1982 with earmarks to USDA’s budget. Funding has been stagnant for years. The fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill passed earlier this year includes language directing the Agriculture Secretary to find a permanent solution to FARAD funding.
Webb says poor funding jeopardizes FARAD employee retention. He has started prioritizing employees in the event that he must lay off people, and he expects employees to leave for more secure jobs.
FARAD contains label information, including withdrawal times of all drugs approved for use in food-producing animals. It has FDA-determined tolerances for drugs and pesticides in tissues, eggs and milk, and nearly 5,000 scientific articles with data on residues and pharmacokinetics.
The information in FARAD is based on healthy animals. Webb says healthy animals are less useful than sick animals for studying how drugs are expelled. This year FARAD has started collecting information from sick animals.
Source: Inside Washington Publishers, August 7, 2008