The Right Way | The Value of Proper Injection Sites
Use the right medication at the right time and in the right way to avoid residue problems in beef cattle.
By Ellen H. Brisendine
Keeping beef cattle healthy can sometimes call for vaccines or antibiotics. Keeping your ranch out of trouble from drug residues calls for reading the label and administering medications at the right dose — and in the right way.
Dr. Thomas Hairgrove and Dr. Joe Paschal, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, taught classes about the value of injections at the 2017 Cattle Raisers Convention, March 31 to April 2, San Antonio. They brought the hindquarter and forequarter of a cadaver calf to illustrate their presentation, peeling back the hide to show what injections under the skin and into the muscle look like.
“About 10 years ago,” Hairgrove says, “the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tried to take certain medications away from beef cattle producers.”
The argument was that antibiotic use in livestock was contributing to human resistance to medically important antibiotics.
“We argued on behalf of beef cattle producers and got the use of important antibiotics back for agricultural use. But, there were stipulations that we could not use those medications ‘extra-label’ and we had to follow the label instructions on how to give the medication and follow the withdrawal times indicated on the label,” he says.
When medications are improperly administered the result may be scarring, or lesions, in the muscle and the withdrawal time for that medicine may become weeks or months longer than normal if the medicine had been administered right.
Hairgrove says some ranchers may give themselves a mental pass and assume they’ll always have plenty of time for the drug withdrawal period to elapse, regardless of route of administration, before an animal enters the food chain. He questions that assumption. “Really? Do we know that? You don’t what’s going to happen to that animal once you sell it to the next sector. You need to make sure that you’re giving the medication right and that you’re staying with those withdrawal periods.”
Hairgrove uses the anti-inflammatory drug flunixin meglumine as an example of what can happen if a useful medication is improperly administered. The most recognizable brand name for flunixin meglumine is Banamine from Merck Animal Health, although several other companies market flunixin under different generic product names.
Flunixin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, analgesic and antipyretic used in horses, cattle and pigs. It’s in the same class of drugs as ibuprofen. It is labeled only for intravenous use in beef and dairy cattle.
When given to beef cattle correctly the withdrawal time is 4 days, Hairgrove says.
If the medication is administered intramuscularly to beef cattle, the withdrawal time is 60 days – 2 months’ withdrawal for the wrong route of administration, compared to less than a week for giving the medication right.
“The other thing that complicates this even more is that Banamine is very inflammatory to the tissue,” Hairgrove says. “Why are you giving Banamine as an anti-inflammatory? If you’re putting it in the muscle, you are adding to your problem. And if you’ve got irritated tissue, that prolongs the withdrawal.”
Banamine may be administered orally to horses, which may lead some producers who haven’t read the label to conclude it is safe to administer orally to cattle.
Hairgrove points out that horses and cattle have different digestive systems and handle medications differently. Also, horses are not food animals in the U.S. and there is no path for a horse to enter our human food system.
Cattle, on the other hand, would have a much longer withdrawal time if they received an oral dose of a medication labeled for intravenous administration.
Another common scenario Hairgrove sees is giving partial doses and expecting the withdrawal time to be shorter. “If 3 pills of a medication prescribed by your veterinarian have a 30-day withdrawal period, that doesn’t mean that 1 pill has a 10-day withdrawal. The math may sound logical, but it just doesn’t work that way,” he explains. Your veterinarian will provide you with the withdrawal time information on prescribed medications. Read and follow your veterinarian’s directions as closely as you would the medicine label, he says.
“As long as you’re sticking to the label instructions, then you’re in pretty good shape. It’s when we start jumping off of these labels that we start getting into trouble.”
Hairgrove has spoken to thousands of ranchers in the last few years about the judicious use of veterinary medications. “‘Judicious’ means using medicines as much as we need to keep our herds healthy, but no more, and using them responsibly. But if we start veering off the label instructions because the guy in the coffee shop said, ‘I did this,’ that’s when we start getting into problems with these withdrawal periods.
“We have to preserve our ability to continue to use antibiotics. If drug residues start showing up in our beef supply, we are going to lose the right to use them in our herds. There won’t be an argument. They will just be gone because we’ve already gone through this once. And we won’t lose just one medication. We will lose the whole class of that medication.
Official and unofficial penalties
What kind of penalties do cow-calf producers face if drug residues are traced back to their operation?
Hairgrove says the first time it happens, “Probably nothing. When I was in veterinary practice, I would get a letter from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) saying ‘ABC Ranch has residue.’ Then they would question me about what happened since I wrote their drug orders.
“So the first penalty is basically being told, ‘Don’t do that anymore.’ Then the second time, they’re a little bit uglier. Then by the third time, they can, and do, prevent you from selling animals.”
It becomes public record, posted online with the USDA FSIS Residue Violation Information System, that your ranch has been found to be the source of drug residue in beef. Major beef buyers review the list and will buy elsewhere.
“If we look at the total numbers, we have very few residue problems in the U.S. And with some care and attention, we can avoid any residue problems. As an industry, we have to use what we need, do what we need to do our jobs, but just understand that if we’re not careful and if we’re reckless, we’re going to lose these drugs. Understand what you’re doing. Understand what you’re putting in that animal. Understand the consequences. As long as you follow the label directions, I can find very, very few times that there’s an issue.” ❚
“The Right Way” is excerpted from the April 2017 issue of The Cattleman magazine.