Trish Dowling expects to spend a lot of time on the phone over the next
few years.
The pharma-toxicologist from the University of Saskatchewan’s Western
College of Veterinary Medicine is co-director of the Global Food Animal
Residue Avoidance Databank Canada.
The new agency, which deals with livestock poisoning and extra-label
use of medications in Canada, will be a partner with the international
GFARAD database that links veterinarians in the United States, Great
Britain, Spain, France and Italy.
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GFARAD, which began in the U.S. in the early 1980s, lists contaminants
and drugs, their toxicity and withdrawal periods, veterinarian queries,
responses by toxicologists and pharmacologists, references to peer
reviewed articles, and national standards.
Canadian veterinarians had limited access to the system until 1998,
when 11 countries, including Canada, agreed to the concept of an
international GFARAD system.
But the Canadian government didn’t support the initiative financially
and the $10,000 annual membership couldn’t be paid. Canadian
veterinarians were cut out of the system.
Dowling and counterparts at Ontario Agriculture began lobbying
livestock industry groups to provide funding.
“We got commitments from them four years ago,” she said.
“It has taken until recently to get governments to commit to the
project.”
A grant of $112,000 from the Canada Adaptation and Rural Development
Saskatchewan fund will help establish the program, which is free to
veterinarians and government officials.
“I hope we will be able to fund the program in the future without
government money.”
Dowling said the database isn’t intended to encourage extra-label drug
use.
“We are here to deal with the system as it exists in this country and
to help prevent contaminants from getting into the food supply and that
is better for the livestock industry as a whole.”
For example, if cattle stuck their noses into a mini-bulk bag of canola
coated with an organophosphate seed treatment, there was until now no
central repository for withdrawal time information. Farmers wanting to
know when or if the cattle’s milk would be safe or when they could be
shipped for slaughter would have few places to turn for support.
They might consult with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, but
veterinarians say the agency has no written tolerance standards for
these products, so likely wouldn’t have an answer.
Local veterinarians could turn to toxicologists at the national vet
schools, but there the professors and researchers would need to examine
the literature and consult with other scientists to come up with an
answer, which could end up being unique in each case.
If animals were poisoned intentionally through a terrorist act, Canada
would have few livestock toxicologists and potentially each could
duplicate the others’ research while trying to provide rapid answers to
government, law enforcement and growers.
Canadian veterinarians trying to solve complex health problems with
food animals or needing to prescribe drugs to unfamiliar livestock
species lacked a central resource for information about appropriate
dosages and withdrawal times for extra-label drug use.
Each situation was handled individually without a central written
record of the answers on which another expert could build. Information
about how drugs could be used in different species was limited to the
knowledge of individual toxicologists.
Provincial veterinary associations, producer groups such as the
Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the Canadian Pork Council and Diary
Farmers of Canada and some Ontario livestock groups have pledged money
for GFARAD Canada.
“Now I just need them to come through and the matching CARDS money will
begin to flow.”
The project will have one person answering veterinarian inquiries from
across the country and directing them to the vet college in Saskatoon
and another in St. Hyacinthe, Que.
The service is bilingual and free at 866-C-GFARAD (866-243-2723)
beginning Oct. 1. For more information, contact www.gfarad.org.
