Elanco, said the FDA, failed to report furious pig farmers phoning the company about "dying animals," "downer pigs," animals "down and shaking," "hyperactivity" and "vomiting after eating feed with Paylean," and also suppressed clinical trial information. But, thanks to same probable lobbying that reversed the cephalosporin ban, the FDA approved ractopamine for cattle the following year and for use in turkeys in 2009! Last year, the FDA enlarged the approval for cattle.
Turkey meat produced with ractopamine is not the same as normal meat by Elanco's own admission! "Alterations" in muscle were seen in turkeys fed ractopamine like an increase in "mononuclear cell infiltrate and myofiber degeneration," says its 2008 new drug application documents. There was "an increase in the incidence of cysts," and differences, some "significant," in the weight of organs like hearts, kidneys and livers. ("Enlarged hearts" had been seen in test rats feed ractopamine in the Canadian studies.)
Still, ractopamine, like antibiotics, is being hailed as "green" and for lowering the carbon footprint. It has "positive environmental benefits for livestock producers in terms of decreased nitrogen and phosphorus excretions," extols one journal article. It results in a, "reduced amount of total animal waste," unless, of course, you count the manure coming from Big Pharma. END
This article first appeared on AlterNet.org
Martha Rosenberg's first book, "Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health," will be published by Prometheus Books in 2012.
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