Two cattle operations located west of the tiny hamlet of Doon, IA

are getting the sort of scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration that it normally reserves for dairy farms.

Cattle

dealers Clifford J. Blom and Timothy R. Nelson received July 28 warning

letters from FDA about their cattle operations located in Iowa’s most

northwest corner close to Sioux Falls, SD.

FDA

inspection teams visited the Iowa cattle businesses last March 10 to 16,

finding violations of the the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.  

Cattle sold for slaughter as human food was found to be adulterated because of unsafe animal drug residues.

Both

cattle dealers, on or about last Jan. 19, sold cows identified

by numbered tags for slaughter as human food. Tissue samples from

both animals were taken by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service

(FSIS) and analyzed.

The animals were found to have levels of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug  flunixin in excess of the tolerance level of 0.125

parts per million (PPM).  In both instances, FSIS said the Iowa cattle dealers sold animals with .0.159 ppm in the liver tissues.

Blom

responded to the FDA-483 Form, the inspection report, proposing

corrective action.   FDA said it would evaluate those changes during its

next inspection.

Nelson and Blom were asked to

respond to the FDA in Kansas City within 15 working days of receiving

their warning letters with “steps taken or will be taken to correct the

violations and prevent their recurrence.”

The

Uttecht Dairy Farm at Birnamwood, WI also received a July 28 warning

letter stemming from its inspection last May 23-25 by FDA.

A

veal calf sold last Dec. 6 by the dairy operation was found with 14.91

ppm of neomycin in the kidney tissue; more than double the allowed limit

of 7.2 ppm.  

Another veal calf sold for

slaughter as human food last March 7 was found with neomycin at 124.54

ppm, over the 7.2 ppm limit.  It also had slightly elevated

penicillin levels.

“You lack an adequate system

to ensure that animals medicated by you have been withheld from

slaughter for appropriate periods of time to permit depletion of

potentially hazardous residues of drugs from edible tissues,” FDA said

in the warning letter.

FDA said the Wisconsin

dairy farm is failing to maintain drug treatment records, an adequate

inventory system, and sale and transport records.   

“As

a producer of animals offered for use as food, you are responsible for

ensuring that your overall operation and food you distribute is in

compliance with the law,” FDA added.