040408 FDA, Veal Sellers OK on Hormone

USA TODAY - The Food and Drug Administration announced a compromise deal with the veal industry that allows the sale of calves that had illegally been given synthetic testosterone to make them grow faster, as long as 63 days had passed since they received the hormone implants.

The FDA also reminded the veal industry that using the growth hormones in veal calves is illegal. "The illegal use of hormones to promote growth in animals has no place in American farming," acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford said in a release issued Friday night.

The implants, which are about size of half a Tic Tac, are placed under the skin of the calves' ears and slowly release the drug into the animals' bloodstream.

Estimates of how many veal calves received the illegal implants run as high as 80% to 90%. The practice appears to have been going on for years. But federal regulators only became aware of it in the past two weeks after the USDA discovered hormone-releasing implants in veal calves at two slaughter plants in Wisconsin. Since then, the USDA has been stopping veal calves found to have hormone implants from entering the food supply.

Both the USDA and the FDA are involved because the USDA monitors food safety and the FDA regulates drugs given to animals.

Use of such growth-enhancing hormones is illegal in veal calves under FDA rules, and meat from them is considered adulterated. The FDA says it is unlikely that the hormone is harmful to people who eat veal.

Such implants are legal and widely used in beef cattle because the hormone has time to leave the animals' system. Veal calves are generally slaughtered at 20 weeks of age, while beef cattle are slaughtered at a year and a half.

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