The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has moved to revoke approval of a drug used to treat certain diseases in pigs because it could leave a cancerous residue that may affect human health. The drug, carbadox, is made by Teaneck, New Jersey-based Phibro Animal Health and is used to control swine dysentery and bacterial enteritis.
The drug, which was approved in 1972, has also been used to promote weight gain in pigs.
Potential cancer risks are based on an assumed lifetime of consuming pork liver or other pork products containing carbadox residues the product is sold under the brand name Mecadox.
Pork is a good source of protein ,but protein can also be found in other meat, poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs, processed soy products, nuts and seeds. Pork liver is used to make liverwurst, hot dogs, lunch meat and some types of sausage, the agency said.
Mecadox has been approved and sold in the United States for more than 40 years and is a widely-used treatment for controlling bacterial diseases. The FDA said it asked Phibro for additional information about the safety of carbadox, but the company has not submitted any proof that there is a safe way to use it
The FDA’s actions follow a preliminary risk assessment conducted from 2012 to 2014 which found that the lifetime cancer risk from consuming pork liver containing carbadox residue is higher than allowed under the FDA’s framework for regulating carcinogenic animal drugs.
Pork producers have become more interested in carbadox recently because it does not require a veterinarian’s prescription, according to John Goihl, president of Agri-Nutrition Services Inc, a Minnesota-based firm that provides feed formulations and consulting services to manufacturers and livestock producers.
Three antibiotics made by Phibro contain carbadox: Mecadox Premix 10, Banminth/Mecadox; and Mecadox/Terramycin, the FDA said.
Read more at http://newsdaily.com/2016/04/fda-to-revoke-pig-drug-approval-over-human-cancer-risk-concern/#x5mS4rHu5kyKUVSd.99
