FARAD to Close Due to Lack of Funding

May 2, 2007 — 

The Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) will no longer be accessible to practitioners by May 15th due to a lack of funding in the federal government's FY '07 budget.

FARAD, in existence since 1982, develops and maintains a unique food safety databank that provides veterinarians, livestock producers, and state and federal regulatory and extension specialists immediate information on avoiding animal drug residue and environmental contamination of food.

FARAD is routinely used to avoid residue violations in meat, milk and eggs from extra-label drug use and to protect public health where food contamination emergencies arise from exposure to environmental toxins, particularly pesticides, either accidental or intentional. Additionally, FARAD is important to agriculture trade and global food safety through its protection of consumers by ensuring that U.S. exports are free of any residues.

The database is a cooperative effort involving NC State University, UC Davis, and University of Florida. The program has never received adequate permanent funding since its inception. The current level of funding will allow the universities to continue to support and maintain the database programming for only another 6 to 9 months before all funding will be exhausted.

The AVMA has written a letter encouraging Mike Johanns, Secretary of Agriculture, to authorize USDA to permanently fund the program or to support a shift in program oversight to FDA-CVM.