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Ractopamine, used to promote rapid growth in factory farm animals, harms the animals and is known to cause heart and respiratory issues in people who consume those animals.<\/em><\/p>\n Food safety, environmental and animal rights groups last week sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in federal court in a bid to force the agency to ban or reduce the allowable levels of a widely used\u00a0livestock growth drug<\/a>\u00a0that the groups said causes harm to humans, animals and the environment.<\/p>\n Ractopamine<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 banned or restricted in about 160 countries \u2014 is used by U.S. industrial livestock producers to rapidly grow muscle in cows, pigs and turkeys.<\/p>\n According to the\u00a0complaint<\/a>, the\u00a0drug<\/a>\u00a0has been shown to cause a host of adverse effects in animals. It also can cause heart and respiratory issues in meat consumers and farmworkers and pollutes ground and surface waters.<\/p>\n The groups \u2014 including the\u00a0Center for Food Safety<\/a>, the\u00a0Animal Legal Defense Fund<\/a>, the\u00a0Center for Biological Diversity<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Food Animal Concerns Trust<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 allege the\u00a0FDA<\/a>\u00a0violated the\u00a0Administrative Procedure Act<\/a>\u00a0by failing to respond in a \u201creasonable\u201d time to their 2012 and 2020 petitions asking that the agency ban or severely limit ractopamine use in livestock.<\/p>\n Hannah Connor, environmental health deputy director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0the FDA \u201chas dragged its feet for years while\u00a0factory farms<\/a>\u00a0have continued using this dangerous animal drug.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUntil the FDA can prove ractopamine is completely safe,\u201d she said, \u201cthe best solution is to act urgently to better protect human health, animals and the environment by granting these petitions.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit \u2014 filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia \u2014 demands the FDA provide \u201csubstantive responses<\/a>\u201d to the petitions, which in turn could result in stricter regulations or an all-out ban of the drug.<\/p>\n Ractopamine is a\u00a0beta-agonist<\/a>\u00a0drug created and marketed by\u00a0Elanco Animal Health\u00a0<\/a>to boost muscle growth in meat-producing animals.<\/p>\n It\u2019s usually administered in the animal\u2019s final weeks of life and may increase an animal\u2019s risk of \u201cpainful injury, inhumane treatment and extreme stress,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n Livestock producers and researchers issued more reports to the FDA of pigs sickened or killed by ractopamine than reports related to any other drug given to pigs.<\/p>\n The FDA\u2019s data show that more pigs have experienced adverse effects from ractopamine than from any other veterinary drug, the groups said in the complaint:<\/p>\n \u201cThe reports of\u00a0adverse effects to pigs<\/a>\u00a0include, but are not limited to, leg stiffness, paralysis, immobility, rapid breathing, severe redness of the skin, muscle tremors, walking with difficulty, frequent vomiting, decreased motor apathy, lacrimation, vasodilation affecting ears and abdomen, fever, bloody diarrhea, enlarged lymph nodes, cracked hooves, coughing, lung congestion, infections on the body, cannibalism, heart attack, aortic rupture, increased fighting, hyperactivity, high body temperature, pneumonia, aggressive sexual behavior, and death by frothy bloat and other means.\u201d<\/p>\n Scientific studies and other evidence \u2014 including studies contained in the FDA\u2019s own files \u2014 also link ractopamine to human heart and respiratory issues in those who eat the meat and in farmworkers, the groups said.<\/p>\n The plaintiffs also are concerned about the drug\u2019s impact on the environment since the animals excrete about 95% of it into manure within the first couple of days after eating feed containing ractopamine.<\/p>\n Run-off from the manure contaminates nearby waterways.<\/p>\n Plus, uneaten feed containing the drug may also be buried, which further increases the amount of the drug in the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe environmental impacts of the release of ractopamine into the environment have not been fully studied and could threaten water quality and wildlife,\u201d the complaint said.<\/p>\n Ractopamine also can negatively affect meat taste and tenderness, according to a\u00a0Center for Food Safety factsheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n The FDA first approved ractopamine for use in American farm animals in 1999 \u2014 an approval based primarily on\u00a0safety studies conducted by the drugmaker<\/a>, the groups said.<\/p>\n The European Union in 2009 banned ractopamine after finding in part that data could not support a conclusion that the drug is safe. China, Japan, South Korea and Russia also have prohibited or restricted ractopamine use.<\/p>\n In 2012, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Center for Food Safety filed a\u00a0citizen petition<\/a>\u00a0with the FDA calling for the immediate reduction in the allowable levels of ractopamine. The groups urged the agency to conduct comprehensive studies on the long-term effects of human consumption, immediate health impact on animals and a thorough review of international standards.<\/p>\n In 2020, three of the groups petitioned the FDA for\u00a0emergency rulemaking<\/a>\u00a0to immediately suspend ractopamine\u2019s approval for use in pig and cow feed.<\/p>\n Like the 2012 petition, the 2020 petition documented ractopamine\u2019s harmful effects\u00a0on humans, animals and the environment.<\/p>\n Despite receiving the two petitions, the FDA continues to approve of ractopamine. The complaint said, \u201caround 60\u201380% of pigs raised for\u00a0food<\/a>\u00a0in the United States receive ractopamine, amounting to, at minimum, tens of millions of pigs each year.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cFDA has ignored the health risks of ractopamine for far too long,\u201d said Food Safety\u2019s Co-Executive Director Sylvia Wu in the press release. \u201cOur farmworkers, animals, and environment cannot and should not have to wait for a lawsuit to be filed for the agency to do its job.\u201d<\/p>\n The FDA did not immediately respond to The Defender\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n Originally published by The Defender \u2014 Children\u2019s Health Defense\u2019s News and Views Website<\/a> under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender<\/a> or donating to Children\u2019s Health Defense<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Ractopamine, used to promote rapid growth in factory farm animals, harms the animals and is known to cause heart and respiratory issues in people who consume those animals. Food safety, environmental and animal rights groups last week sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in federal court in a bid to force the agency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1282,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[359,288,1327],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1249],"class_list":["post-261947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-fda","category-food-news","category-ractopamine","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t
\nFDA\u2019s own files show evidence of harm<\/h3>\n
About 160 countries ban or restrict ractopamine<\/h3>\n
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