CALIFORNIA DRUG RESIDUE PREVENTION PROGRAM

California Drug Residue Prevention ProgramProject Abstract/SummaryThe mission of the California Department of Food and Agriculture?s (CDFA) Antimicrobial Useand Stewardship (AUS) Program is to provide leadership to California?s livestock industrytoward the mutual effort to mitigate practices contributing to the expansion of antimicrobialresistance, to reduce potentially harmful impacts from the use of antibiotics, to promote andprotect animal health by preserving existing veterinary antimicrobial drugs for veterinary use,and to ensure a clean and wholesome food supply through sound science, education,stewardship, and proficient management. This program is a collaborative effort betweenInspection Services Division?s Feed, Fertilizer, and Livestock Drugs Regulatory Services Branchand Animal Health and Food Safety Services Division. The mission of CDFA?s Livestock DrugProgram (LDP) is to assure that livestock drugs are available to producers for their use inprotecting the health of livestock and such use will in turn benefit the public by providing a safeand abundant supply of food and fiber.The primary goals of the proposed project are to develop industry-wide education and outreach,conduct assessments with recent violators, and perform on-site best practices visits forhistorical violators. This project will allow CDFA to further both the LDP and AUS programs?outreach and best practices for producers, which ties directly in with CDFA?s efforts toimplement the new Livestock: Use of Antimicrobial Drugs law in California. This project wouldallow additional education for violators after an investigation, furthering efforts to prevent misuseof antibiotics and other livestock drugs and potentially reducing future drug residues.Grant funding will enable AUS and LDP to further enhance both programs through developmentof additional targeted producer outreach, and producer assessments and visits outside ofenforcement. These funds will allow the programs to develop on farm assessment tools togenerate risk levels of producers and help for future reduction of drug residue when this grantperiod has concluded. The programs will utilize information from on farm assessments and visitsto enhance outreach materials and develop livestock drug training programs. Overall, thedevelopment of these materials and programs will increase drug residue prevention awareness.