VPT 421: Veterinary Toxicology (2+0)

IMPORTANCE OF RESIDUES

• Concerns over food residues are economical as well as public health related.
• Both public health and economic concerns are the major driving forces behind the search of ways to minimize the threat of residue contamination of the public food supply.
• Contamination of the food supply with the chemical residue is rarely an intentional act and usually results either from failure to observe the correct meat withdrawal or milk discard time for a drug after it has been used to treat a disease in food animals or from accidental contamination of feed by chemicals and drugs.
• Generally a drug is administered to healthy animals, groups of animals are slaughtered at sequential time intervals and their edible tissues are analyzed for drug concentrations.