Carbadox: FDA Should Ban it for Pigs, People, & the Environment

Factory farms do a lot of unhealthy things to food animals. Crowding, poor diets, mixing lots of animals together, and pulling baby animals away from their moms before the babies are ready for solid food are all standard operating procedures. They do this because it is cheaper than giving the animals what they need. Factory farms do not ignore animal health, they just manage it in a way that maximizes profits rather than health or welfare. Antibiotics are one of the tools used by factory farms to manage animal health under these conditions. Because farms know they are raising animals in ways that make them sick, they routinely feed them antibiotics to head off disease before it gets out of control. This leads to difficult to treat antibiotic resistant superbugs, and for pigs, dangerous residues in pork products.  Well over half of the more than 100 million pigs raised in the US each year are given the feed additive carbadox, which is a known carcinogen. This can lead to cancer-causing residues in pork products, workers being exposed to the additive when breathing dust from feed containing it, and the drug getting into lakes and streams as pig waste is washed off of fields where it is spread for disposal.

The Food and Drug Administration, which is supposed to make sure that animal drugs are safe for the animals and safe for people, has known about the dangers of carbadox for over a decade and in 2016 even began taking steps to ban its use in pigs. Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Europe banned this dangerous animal feed additive long ago. Here in the U.S. though the drug and factory farm industries have much more sway and almost 6 years after determining that the use of the drug creates an unacceptable risk to people, millions of pigs are still being administered the drug every day.

FDA is once again considering what to do about carbadox and needs to hear from you. Please let them know loud and clear that you want the drug banned. You can be sure that they will be hearing from the drug maker and the factory farm owners. You can make your voice heard through June 10, 2022 by using FACT’s action alert system. *

The truth is, if farms and feedlots were to take care of their animals properly there would be no need for the huge amount of feed additives and antibiotics they use. Reducing crowding, improving housing, and delaying weaning work much better than these additives in preventing disease.

*This action is now closed, however, you may visit our action center for a list of active and ongoing campaigns.