Oxytetracycline and Egg Withdrawal

[TheKrystalRose]

I've been lurking and using this site as a reference for a while, and have finally decided to join the conversation with a question!

My flock just finished a round of oxytetracycline, for a respiratory infection. I have seen a lot of recommendations on here to wait 21-30 days before eating the eggs again, but there a couple recent studies out that have said that egg withdrawal for OTC only needs to be nine days. Thoughts?

Studies:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2015932/

http://www.researchgate.net/profile...sableCoverPage=true&origin=publication_detail

 

[Folly's place]

You can also check the FDA and the FARAD.org sites for current information. The study you noted here used Leghorns, who are noted to lay eggs daily. The tetracyclines are deposited in the yolks in the hen, so they demonstrated low levels of the drug after the ninth egg (I would guess), and that's not going to be nine days in hens who don't lay an egg every day. That was also not a large number of birds. There are good reasons to err on the side of caution when using eggs (especially selling them!!!) after using medications. Good for you for looking it up! Mary

 

[lynx04]

You can also check the FDA and the FARAD.org sites for current information. The study you noted here used Leghorns, who are noted to lay eggs daily. The tetracyclines are deposited in the yolks in the hen, so they demonstrated low levels of the drug after the ninth egg (I would guess), and that's not going to be nine days in hens who don't lay an egg every day. That was also not a large number of birds. There are good reasons to err on the side of caution when using eggs (especially selling them!!!) after using medications. Good for you for looking it up! Mary

But it is notable that in two different studies, the findings were the same. BTW, thanks for pointing out the nine egg thing. I think it would be safe to withdraw eggs for 14 days based upon these findings. Also, it was interesting to note that the reason for the withdrawal was not because of any adverse effects from the drug itself, but rather to prevent microbial resistance.