Surveillance animal feed

The King County surveillance does not show a connection between the use of antibiotics in animal feed and either campylobacteriosis or salmonellosis. 

Several years ago in Belgium, terrorists contaminated chickens by adding dioxin to fat used to make animal feed. Authorities did not discover the contamination for several months, long after Europeans sold and ingested contaminated chicken meat and eggs in early 1999 (4,6). Besides pointing out the vulnerability of commercial food supplies, the experience demonstrated that our public health disease surveillance system must promptly recognize suspicious patterns of disease in animals to protect human health (4). 

TABLE n. The Twenty Parameters Used in Animal Feed Surveillance ... 

Oiler, William L. Gough, Bobby Littlefield, Neal A. Chemical surveillance and quality assurance for preparation of dosed (2-AAF) animal feed (EDqi study). J. Environ. Pathol. Toxicol. 1980, 3, 203-210. 

A number of measures have been taken to contain BSE. Thousands of cattle have been culled and there are controls prohibiting the feeding of mammalian proteins to ruminant animals (cows, sheep, and goats). There are also surveillance programs set up to monitor CJD in humans. 

Over a period of about twenty years the results of surveillance for veterinary drug residues in meat and animal products in the UK have provided reassurance that residues of veterinary drugs occur at very low concentrations and generally at low frequencies. Over this period repeated surveillance and improved communication and awareness of the producer and feed industry has resulted in a downward trend in the level and incidence of residues detected. However, contamination hot spots remain (e.g. animal medicated feed) and will continue to be monitored in the future. In addition, as new products are introduced into the market they will be evaluated during the licensing process to establish any risk from their residues present in human food. The UK also imports a significant amount of animal-derived food and the presence and risk to the UK consumer of residues in these products must also be considered and appropriate measures taken to protect the UK consumer. 

The Need for Increased Surveillance of the Exposure of Man to lonophores. From the lipid soluhllity of monensln and other lonophores, we would predict they should have no trouble equilibrating across biological membrane systems including the gut. This Is certainly the case for the two diverse species observed, the dog, a carnivore, and the rabbit, a herbivore. Accordingly, we infer that there Is ample opportunity for monensln and other carboxylic lonophores administered orally to livestock to distribute systemically and exert a pharmacological effect on the recipient animal. Furthermore, the resultant physiological effects may be part of the mechanism by which lonophores produce their Improved feed conversion efficiency. 

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