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2007-8-28 16:28:45 |
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The US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico issued an order of Permanent Injunction against J.M. Dairy Inc., Las Martas Inc., Juan Manuel Barreto Ginorio, and the owner of the dairies after drugs were found in cows at illegal levels, the Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday August 15. The problem was found by the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), a USDA agency between August 2003 and September 2005. The drug residues of concern included antibiotics such as sulfamethazine, sulfathiazole, sulfadimethoxine, and penicillin at levels not permitted by FDA. More recent FDA inspections confirmed that the dairies continued using animal drugs in a manner contrary to the label directions, without the benefit of a veterinarian's oversight, and failed to maintain record-keeping systems to ensure that milk or cows for slaughter for human food with illegal drug levels were not sold, the FDA says in its statement. Under the order, the defendants must implement record-keeping systems to ensure that their use of drugs conforms to FDA regulations and that no milk or animals for slaughter for human food enters into interstate commerce with illegal levels of new drug residues. But the order does not prohibit the defendants from conducting interstate commerce, that is, selling or delivering milk or animals for slaughter for human food. The Court order, according to the FDA, was triggered after a civil complaint was filed against the defendants on Sept. 19, 2006. |
