Know what's happening on the farming scene Read Lancaster Farming for all the news! JOHN KAUFFMAN CHRISTMAS TOYS LEONARD WILL GIVE 10% OFF Also FREE TRUCKING Thru Month of December OFFER EXPIRES DEC. 31, 1974 AB this plus the regular friendly service you always get at the home of the Friendly Folks . FARM * We Can’t Get Our Hands Out of The Soil Either! JOHN OFF 20% 15% OFF OFF 30% LARGE SELECTION OF AT SPECIAL LOW PRICES ON ALL OVERHAULS DONE IN OUR SHOP Lancaster Tractor, Take Rory Mill Exit off 283 and go •/« mile toward East Petersburg. The New Home of the Friendly People 1655 ROHRERSTOWN ROAD LANCASTER, PA. PHONE (717) 569-7063 WILL GIVE ON TRACTOR MUFFLERS, EXCEPT LAWN A GARDEN TRACTORS. ON ALL TRACTOR BATTERIES. ON GREASE GUNS A GREASE TUBES PER PACK. LEONARD SCHOTT Ford Inc. 411 W. ROSEVILLE RD., LANCASTER PH. 393-3921 VI Dairy Cows Culled For Residues Cull dairy cows arc prime ingredients for many processed meat products. But what you do to get them to market could well determine whether you get a good return from these cows or whether they get con demned during inspection. The U.S, Department of Agriculture (USDA) is concerned about your cull cows. The Veterinary Ser vices Staff of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)- -through its market cattle testing program-is looking for herds infected with such diseases as tuberculosis and brucellosis. That same Agency’s Meat and Poultry Inspection Program is in terested in the wholesomeness of the meat derived from these animals. Many dairymen are thoroughly familiar with the animal disease programs. However, they may not be as familiar with Meat In spection. Yet the latter is equally important to the return they may get from their culls. Every cow shipped for slaughter in a federally inspected plant is examined prior to daughter by a USDA veterinarian or his trained assistant. Only normal appearing cows are passed for slaughter. Cows found to be unfit for human food are condemned on the spot and are not allowed to enter the daughter plant. Cows behaving ab normally or showing signs of clinical disease are treated as “suspects” and given special attention by the inspectors. Such cows are held'tack and slaughtered separately. On these cows, especially, the inspectors look for in jection sites or other signs that may indicate that the CREDIT 3 At Farm Credit we know people who wouldn’t give up farming for anything They farm part time, and hold down a city job too. We make loans to these people, the same as we do to full- time farmers. Loans on anything to make farming easier, and pay better. Our interest rates are the lowest possible, our terms the longest around, and we’ll go out of our way to help you. You see, we know how farming can get in your blood. Because we grew up on farms ourselves, AGWAY BUILDING, LEBANON PH. 273-4506 Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Nov. 23,1974 animal has been treated recently with a drug or antibiotic that might leave a residue. Samples or muscle or organ tissue arc taken for laboratory analysis if visual inspection is inconclusive. All carcasses are in spected Individually after slaughter. Internal organs and glands are examined for signs of disease, injury, contamination or other unwholesome condition. If the inspector is unable to determine whether the meat is wholesome, he will send samples to one of the USDA laboratories for testing. The suspect carcass, in the meantime, is retained until results of the laboratory tests are obtained. Carcasses that pass in spection are stamped with the official "U.S. Inspected and Passed” mark. Car casses or parts that do not pass inspection are kept under strict control of the inspector to be destroyed or treated to show that they are obviously unfit for human food. In the case of cows diowing signs of mastitis, the usual procedure is to condemn the udder and pass the remainder of the carcass if no systemic changes are found. This procedure may change, a nationwide survey of such cows conducted last year diowed that almost one third of those samples had antibiotic residues in their kidneys. The antibiotic residue program is conducted by USDA to help assure the wholesomeness of our food supply. When above tolerance residues are found, the test results, portions of the sample and toe name and address of the owner of the animals involved are turned over to the Pood and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA FARM CREDIT We’re your kind of people. has legal authority over feed additives and drugs. But USDA action does not stop when FDA is notified. APHIS requires proof of compliance for all future animals from a herd prior to daughter if residues have been found in any animal slaughtered from that herd. All test conducted to prove that no other animals con tain violative residues are at the expense of the herd owner. This testing con tinues until APHIS is sure that the residue problem in the herd has been solved. Testing for antibiotics is a simple yet complex and exacting job as carried out by USDA laboratory per sonnel. It is simplc-A sample is placed in contact with growing bacteria. If the bacteria are prevented from growing, an antimicrobial agent is present. It is complex and exacting -Samples are taken of many tissues and are handled carefully to prevent con tamination. They must be frozen and rushed to the laboratory. Several different bacteria must be kept on hand at the laboratory in order to differentiate among a variety of antibacterial substance Many antibiotics have specific inhibitory effects on certain bacteria. What do these tests reveal -The tests will show whether any antibiotic residue is present in the sample. Most of the time, the test will show which antibiotic or com bination of antibiotics has been used on the animal prior to slaughter. And, the tests will show how much antiobiotic residue is in the tissue-a good indication of how soon before slaughter the animal was treated. Inspectors take samples [Continued on Page 42| 33