FDA letter warns about antibiotics

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given two St. Lawrence County dairy farms warnings about their alleged misuse of antibiotics.

Adon Farms, Potsdam, and Lloyd T. Smith & Sons, Morley, were among those receiving the letters recently released by the FDA. A Westmoreland veal farmer also received a letter.

Antibiotics have been used on farms for years to fight infections and for nontherapeutic purposes, such as to compensate for crowded or unsanitary conditions.

To help limit the amount of penicillin in the milk and meat that people consume, the FDA has a cap on how much of the drug is allowed. Overuse of the medication is believed to contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The FDA found that a dairy cow sold for slaughter Oct. 15, 2008, by Adon Farms, Route 72, had a tissue sample that contained 0.82 parts per million of penicillin residue. The FDA's tolerance for penicillin residue is 0.05 parts per million.

The investigation also found that the farm held animals under conditions inadequate to keep medicated animals with potentially harmful drug residues from entering the food supply.

"For example, you failed to maintain accurate treatment records and 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," the FDA's warning letter said.

The FDA also found that Adon Farms did not use several animal drugs according to their approved labeling and did so without the supervision of a licensed veterinarian.

Andrew J. Gilbert, one of the owners of the family-run Adon Farms, said he responded to the FDA letter but declined to go into details.

"Just read the report and eventually they'll release the response," he said. "That'd be the best way to leave it."

Neither Peter C. Smith nor John D. Smith, partners in the dairy farm of Lloyd T. Smith & Sons, was available for comment.

The FDA investigation determined that they sold a dairy cow March 16 for slaughter and that it had a residue of 0.14 parts per million of penicillin in tested tissue.

The FDA also found the farm failed to maintain complete treatment records and did not use one drug as directed by its approved labeling.