Interesting article posted by MSNBC regarding international trade regulations relating to U.S. agricultural practices inpsired me to dig a bit. I
find it curious that only six humans were used in toxicity studies... as well as the fact that we allow animals so diseased that they can't move onto
our dinner plates. It seems a bit absurd that they are willing to add this drug to the feed at all when any financial gain generated is surely offset
by the fact that a good portion of the world refuses to eat it.
Livestock drug banned in China
and the EU is fed to a majority of pigs in US.
A drug produced by international agriculture giant Elanco known as ractopamine is banned in all of the European countries, Turkey, Russia, China,
Japan, India, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and the INGO consumer organizations Consumers International and NHF. Yet it's fed to about 60 to
80 percent of pigs in the US - the FDA having ruled that ractopamine was safe for use in pigs in 1999, for cattle in 2003 and turkeys in 2008.
Twenty four nations, inluding South Korea, Brazil, and all of North America have approved the product.
The drug was introduced into the market in the manner of Elanco’s other two blockbusters, Stilbosol (diethylstilbestrol or DES), now withdrawn, and
Posilac or bovine growth hormone (rBST) (bought from Monsanto in 2008) became part of the nation’s food supply: amidst intensive lobbying - the
result being heavy support for the elimination of trade barriers for Ractopamine treated products despite global oppositions.
United States during Codex Committee on Food Additives: "Earlier this week we heard clearly from JECFA that the issue to adopt the MRLs is no
longer a food safety issue. After years of study, JECFA and CCCF have said that there is no food safety issue. Countries should not be allowed to stop
adoption of standards on the basis of their own political agendas. However, we did hear a scientific problem with lung MRL [from China on Monday,
noting that lung is consumed in China and is very high in Ractopamine™-treated animal] so work should go forward on this standard [to adopt the
MRLs]. For the US the answer is clear: we support adoption of all Ractopamine™ MRLs without any footnotes.”
So why aren't other nations as enthusiastic?
Taipei Times: "According to Lin Chieh-liang (林杰樑), a toxicologist at Linkuo Chang Gung Memorial Hospital,
Taiwan and China apply stricter standards than the West because this
additive (and another beta agonist, salbutamol) tends to concentrate in the offal portions of the animal. This is not a concern in the West
because offal is rarely consumed there, but offal (kidneys, lungs, etc) is a major source of food in the area (as well as many regions where the ban
is in effect).
Feng Jun-lan, an official responsible for food safety, said 450kg of kidneys, imported by a Taichung City-based food company, were tested on and found
to contain 0.49 parts per billion (ppb) of the drug."
China Post: "Yeh Ying, deputy director of the COA’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), said the bureau
decided to ban all drugs used by farmers as food additives to boost growth of lean meat in pigs, including ractopamine, only after cases were reported
abroad concerning bad effects on consumers’ heart and neural
systems after eating ractopamine-containing meat products."
As with many drugs, the approval process relied on safety studies conducted by the drug-maker -- studies that lie at the heart of the current trade
dispute. The company received a
warning letter from the FDA
in 2002 for failing to disclose all data about the safety and effectiveness of the drug, and in the same year Elanco was asked to add a warning
label to the drug in 2002 due to complaints by USDA meat inspectors regarding adverse health effects. The warning label on the feed additive now
states that "Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special caution (gloves, coats, respirators) to avoid exposure."
Elanco mainly tested animals -- mice, rats, monkeys and dogs -- to judge how much ractopamine could be safely consumed. Adverse reproductive effects
were noticed in monkeys, decreased testicular weight was seen in male rats at all doses tested, and deterioration of the function of the heart muscle
in mice. Only one human study was used in the safety assessment by Elanco, and among the six healthy young men who participated, one was removed
because his heart began racing and pounding abnormally, according to a detailed evaluation of the study by European Union food safety officials. A
dose has yet to be established which causes no effect in man, and there have been many documented cases of severe food poisoning throughout the world
thought to be a
direct consequence of
consuming meat products contaminated with Ractopamine residues.
Ractopamine is added to cattle feed less than a month before slaughter to improve marbling by increasing protein synthesis in the animals' last days.
The drug mimics stress hormones to alter an animals metabolism so that less fat and more muscle is produced, but can make the animals sick.
Under certain conditions the drug increases breakdown of lipids, which is associated with
increased cholesterol levels even as fat formation is inhibited. Ractopamine leaves animals' bodies
quickly, with pig studies showing about 85 percent excreted within a day - and data of this sort is
used to support the pre-slaughter withdrawal time of 0 days established by the FDA . However
low levels of metabolic residues can still be detected in pigs urine
up to three weeks after they've
consumed the drug.
Furthermore, according to the FDA ractopamine has sickened or killed more livestock than any other drug - hundreds of thousands of such incidents have
been acknowledged since its introduction. Cattle and turkeys have also suffered high numbers of illnesses from the drug - and in pigs it is capable of
provoking major psychological changes including aggression and
increased agitation, creating
difficulties for
handlers. edit on 29-1-2012 by illusionincarnate because: (no reason given)
