Last week, we touched on the growing importance of securing a reliable and profitable market for your animals, and why it is crucial for farmers to not only produce animals of good quality, but also animals which meet the health standards of the various markets.
Today, I thought it is equally important to further that conversation by shining a bit of light on the significance of keeping accurate and up-to-date health records for all your animals, especially if you are a farmer producing for the local and international markets.
Farmers who produce products intended for human consumption are periodically required and expected to maintain accurate and identifiable health records of all livestock that were administered with specific medications at different intervals.
This ensures any animal that is intended for human consumption is free of any medication residues. Sometimes an animal gets sick, and antibiotics are administered. But as a farmer or producer, it is your responsibility to ensure that there are no medication residues in the meat you sell.
Medication residue is the presence of antibiotics, antimicrobials, dewormers, anti-inflammatories, and tranquilisers that are in the animal’s meat or other animal products after the animal was administered with a specific medication. Any meat or milk that is contaminated is a major concern for public health, which is why it is critical for a farmer to know and understand the withdrawal time for the various medications administered to the animals.
Simply put, withdrawal periods for medications reflect the amount of time necessary for an animal to metabolise an administered product, and the amount of time necessary for the product concentration level in the tissues to decrease to a safe, acceptable and consumable level.
Please take note that withdrawal times are not the same for all medications, and the species of animal receiving the medications are also not the same. Therefore, it is vital to always speak to a licensed veterinarian.
To better understand the withdrawal times of medications, let’s use an example of a dairy farmer who needs to treat a lactating dairy cow for hoof rot.
Your veterinarian may suggest giving her a shot of penicillin to treat it. You and your veterinarian then agree that the milk withdrawal time is 20 December at 01h00. You milk twice a day; at 04h30 and 16h30.
The question would be, is it safe to put her milk in the tank with the rest of the herd at the 16h30 milking? The answer is no, because even though the withdrawal time is over, the milk she produced after the 04h30 milking is still in the period the medication was still active in her system.
So, it means the milk from the 16h30 milking on 20 December will need to be thrown out.
To better protect your farm from medication residues, keep accurate treatment records for every animal that must be administered with antibiotics, dewormers, anti-inflammatories, tranquilisers or antimicrobials.
Treatment records should include the route and location of administration, withdrawal time, and identity of the person who administered the animals. Again, know and understand the withdrawal time for the various medications you are going to use because they are not all the same.
Also, know the correct injection areas for the animals, and if the medication you intend to use needs to be administered SQ (subcutaneous) – under the skin or IM (intramuscular) – into the muscle, or IV (intravenous) – into the vein. Lastly, it is also crucial to know how long to keep the health records. Generally, it is advisable to keep two-year health records for beef cattle, five years for sheep and goats, five years for dairy cows and heifers. For poultry and rabbit farmers, one-year accurate health records are also acceptable.
I must underscore that for sheep and goats, and the five-year recordkeeping is important because of common diseases such as the Scrapie virus, which is a fatal, degenerative disease that affects the central nervous system of sheep and goats.
Until then…