Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD)

<P>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) program is a chemical food safety program that has been in existence for more than 30 years. This has been a collaborative effort by scientists from four veterinary colleges at North Carolina State University, University of California Davis, University of Florida, and Kansas State University. The program goal of FARAD is to provide the most updated information that result in the production of safe foods of animal origin through the prevention and mitigation of violative chemical (drug, pesticide, natural toxins, and environmental contaminant) residues in food animal products. The program accomplishes this through its objectives which are to identify, extract, assemble, evaluate and distribute reviewed information about residue avoidance and mitigation to people involved in residue avoidance programs throughout the United States. Each of the four FARD centers has expertise for delivery of the required information which eliminates redundancies and allows for smooth collaboration of collective talents unique to the field of veterinary pharmacokinetics research and related database management. </P>
<P>APPROACH: Procedures:The objective of the four collaborating universities is to continue the development and delivery of FARAD, and to utilize current technologies to make changes in FARAD which will improve its usefulness and utility as a decision support system. The five primary tasks include: 1. Extraction and validation of data for incorporation into the system and support for FARAD's approved drug databases for publication in electronic format (VetGRAM) for INTERNET delivery. This includes extraction of relevant data from foreign drug compendia and gFARAD partners. 2. Operation of the Regional Access Centers (RAC's) at NCSU, KSU, and UCD for provision of residue avoidance information, with access through the toll-free hotline and e-mail. 3. Data entry, pharmacokinetic analysis, maintenance, and distribution of the FARAD files. 4. Preparation of FARAD Digests for publication in the Journal of the AVMA, Newsletters, FARAD Fact Sheets when appropriate for rapid dissemination of information in an ongoing crisis, and other publications for distribution. 5. Develop and validate methods to allow extrapolative techniques to be used in providing information and advice in situations where no direct data currently exists, the norm for mitigating environmental contaminant exposures.</P>