Veterinary Drugs Residues: Veterinary Drugs – General

Abstract

Veterinary drugs are an essential component of animal husbandry and modern food production, but their residues can persist in animal-derived foods and present potential food safety risks. To minimize these risks, national authorities establish strict controls for the authorization, labeling, and use of veterinary drugs in food-producing animals, and they conduct surveillance programs to detect unsafe drug residues in animal-derived foods. The approach to evaluate the safety of food containing veterinary drug residues is similar to the safety assessment applied to food additives but is complicated by metabolic and dispositional processes that take place in the target animal. This general section on veterinary drugs examines the pharmacology, toxicology, food safety, and analytical chemistry of the most commonly used classes of drugs in food-producing animals.