title: Prescribing of drugs for food-producing animals in Norway. Information about withdrawal times.
abstract: The prescribing of drugs for food-producing animals in Norway was investigated with special emphasis on written information given about withdrawal times. The study was designed as a cross-sectional prescription survey. Of 1518 prescriptions for food-producing animals, it was concluded that 1224 of the prescriptions were for drugs requiring withdrawal times for meat, milk or eggs. Of these 1224 prescriptions, 82.8% were for veterinary preparations, 6.6% were for human preparations and 10.6% were for other drugs. For 20.8% of the prescriptions, information about withdrawal time(s) was missing. For prescriptions for veterinary preparations this figure was 5.9%, and for prescriptions for human preparations and other drugs 95.1% and 90.8%, respectively. For veterinary preparations approved for the intended species, as many as 99.2% gave information about withdrawal times on the drug container label. Lack of information about withdrawal times might give rise to drug residues in food for human consumption and thus pose a potential hazard to human health.
authors.affiliation: Rikshospitalets apotek, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bangen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Skjerve
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Grave
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Søli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000378:metabolism*; D002417:Cattle / Q000378:metabolism; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards / Q000662:veterinary*; D004350:Drug Residues; D005399:Fishes / Q000378:metabolism; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006041:Goats / Q000378:metabolism; D006736:Horses / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009664:Norway; D011200:Poultry / Q000378:metabolism; D012756:Sheep / Q000378:metabolism; D013552:Swine / Q000378:metabolism