Calf company cleans up act - D & S Calf Co - Investigators' Reports

FDA Consumer, Nov, 1996 by Isadora B. Stehlin

In more than 50 instances over a two-year period, livestock dealers Daniel Slenders and Stacey Absher were caught selling calves to be slaughtered for food containing illegal residues of antibiotics and other drugs. Those incidents - a "phenomenal number," according to one FDA official - led to a consent decree of permanent injunction in which Slenders and Absher agreed to stop selling calves until they had implemented safeguards to prevent future violations.

Slenders and Absher, owners of D & S Calf Co., Chowchilla, Calif., signed the decree, which the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California entered on April 23, 1996, after an FDA investigation documented illegal residues of penicillin, tetracycline, gentamicin, neomycin, streptomycin, sulfamethazine, and sulfamethoxazole in D & S calves.

A calf that is treated with a drug or that has nursed from a drug-treated cow must be withheld from the market until the drug withdrawal time is complete. Drug residues in edible animal tissue may cause allergic reactions in some people consuming meat from these animals. The residues also may cause changes in the intestinal microflora, affecting such processes as vitamin synthesis, therapeutic drug metabolism, and development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

FDA investigator Robert J. Anderson first inspected D & S Calf in July 1989, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture found excessive drug residues in four calves sold for slaughter by Slenders. When calves are sent to slaughterhouses, USDA collects liver, kidney, and sometimes muscle tissue samples from a certain percent of the animals. If the samples indicate the presence of illegal drug residues, the carcass is condemned, and USDA notifies the producer and FDA.

FDA's inspection revealed that D & S Calf did not maintain adequate records showing where the calves were bought, the medications given to the calves, or the withdrawal periods for the medicated calves. On Sept. 18, FDA's San Francisco district office sent a regulatory letter to Slenders warning him that he must maintain the required records if he continues to sell calves in interstate commerce.

FDA's Anderson returned to D & S Calf in October 1990 after USDA again found illegal, residues in several calves sold by D & S Calf. Slenders told Anderson he would record the source and medicated status of the calves he sold for slaughter as food.

The level of violations did diminish after that inspection. "He cleaned up his operation for awhile," recalls John Reves, a compliance officer with FDA's San Francisco district. But in late 1994 USDA again detected illegal residues of antibiotics in a calf Slenders sold for slaughter.

When FDA returned to D & S Calf in January 1995, Slenders admitted to the investigator that he knew the calf was medicated but had forgotten to tell the slaughterhouse. On March 17, FDA's San Francisco office again warned the firm to stop delivering medicated calves for slaughter for food and advised it to maintain proper records. In response to that warning, Slenders told the agency he would not purchase or sell medicated calves for slaughter.

But his assurances were false.

From September 1995 through March 1996, USDA detected illegal drug residues in more than 40 calves sold by Slenders and Absher. That brought the total since October 1994 to more than 50. "That's a phenomenal number of violations in such a short period of time," says Reves.

Because the agency's warnings did not result in compliance, on March 15, 1996, FDA asked the U.S. Department of Justice to initiate injunction proceedings against D & S Calf After the department contacted the defendants, they agreed to sign a consent decree to settle the case without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.

Under the decree, the defendants agreed not to sell animals for slaughter for human food until residue avoidance systems were in place.

FDA and the Department of Justice worked with the defendants to establish an acceptable residue avoidance plan. The resulting plan requires Slenders and Absher to:

* Obtain certification from the animal producer that the animal they are buying has not been medicated or, if it was medicated, information on how much drug was given and the remaining drug withdrawal time, if any.

* Keep records indicating where they bought the animals.

* Identify the animals they purchase with a permanent tag.

At press time, the residue avoidance plan was in place, and no new reports of illegal drug residues had been made.