FOOD ANIMAL RESIDUE AVOIDANCE AND DETECTION (FARAD) PROGRAM: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA COMPONENT

This proposal is to fund the continued implementation of the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion (FARAD) program at the University of Florida. FARAD, which has existed since 1982 and been funded by USDA/CSREES, is a collaborative project among the colleges of veterinary medicine at North Carolina State University (NCSU), the University of California at Davis (UCD) and the University of Florida (UFL). The overarching goal of FARAD is to protect the integrity of and maintain production of safe foods of animal origin through the prevention and mitigation of violative residues of chemical agents (drugs, pesticides, environmental contaminants, etc.) in food animal products. While the principal users of FARAD are veterinarians, regulatory agencies, and extension specialists, the ultimate client is the general public who can consume foods of animal origin that are free of harmful drug or chemical residues. FARAD originated with the Residue Avoidance Program (RAP) in 1982 as a repository of residue avoidance information and educational materials. FARAD has now evolved into an expert-mediated residue avoidance decision support system, which provides timely advice and information on a wide range of drug and chemical entities. This ability has proved vital to the execution of the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act of 1994 (AMDUCA) regulations that legalized the extra-label use of drugs by veterinarians. AMDUCA regulations require that extra-label use of drugs in food animals be based on sound principles of residue avoidance. The National Research Council acknowledged FARAD as the primary source of this information.