Health Concerns

FDA Says One N.Y. Farm’s Dairy Cows Are Way Heavy Into the Drugs

Ever seen a cow with bloodshot eyes?
Ever seen a cow with bloodshot eyes? Photo: iStockphoto

The FDA has issued warning letters to two farms — one in Michigan and one in New York — whose cows were found to have extremely high levels of antibiotics. When the FDA took tissue samples last year from a veal calf raised at New York’s Valmont Dairy, tests returned abnormally high levels of two antibiotics, one of which the agency indicates in its warning letter was used in an off-label manner. But they’re just cows, right? Well, increasing evidence suggests that overuse of antibiotics in livestock invariably factors into the food chain and affects human health. In fact, one study published last month suggested genetically identical bacterium found in the food supply chain in the Netherlands resulted in a sudden increase of the drug-resistant bacterium in people from the same area. [Food Safety News, Earlier]

FDA Says One N.Y. Farm’s Dairy Cows Are Way Heavy Into the Drugs