Drugs and Pharmaceuticals

Question 1

What makes a substance toxic or poisonous?

Answer 1

Dosage
Ex. Salt is used as treatment in animals, but giving too much can cause swelling in the brain and even death

Drugs is all about quantity

Question 2

What are the catagories of drugs?

Answer 2

• Biologicals
• Antimicrobials
• Other Pharmaceuticals (many exist)

Question 3

Biologicals

Pharmaceuticals

Answer 3

Products (usually proteins) that are typically synthesized by a living organism

Examples
* Vaccines (traditional vaccines) (killed or inactivated pathogens) (attenuation, “breeding” viruses to be useless)
* Antibody preparations, blood or blood products, cells or tissues
* Often very expensive, but very effective
* Some hormones and growth factors
* Insulin
* Antibody/immunoglobulin products
* Colostrum sourced from other animals
* Probiotics

Question 4

Antimicrobials

Pharmaceuticals

Answer 4

Broad term for any natural or synthetic compound that kills microorganisms or suppresses their growth
* Includes antibiotics, ionophores, antiseptics, disinfectants

Antibiotics - Specifically a drug (which may be derived from a substance produced by a microorganism, eg. penicillin)
* Can be made synthetically
* If it ends with “mycin” it typically came from a mold

Question 5

Other Drugs

Catagory of pharmaceutical

Answer 5

Parasiticides
Fungicides
Tranquillisers and anesthetics
Anaesic (pain) medications
Hormones
Cardiovascular drugs
Chemotherapy drugs
Vitamins, minerals
MORE

Question 6

How do we treat food animals different than companion animals with pharmaceuticals?

Answer 6

Food animals have less treatments available to them then companion animals, because you have to consider that someone is going to eat that animals
* We’re worried about passing on resistant bacteria

Question 7

When should we use drugs in animals?

Answer 7

Should be in the right context
* Don’t give animals drugs when they don’t need them
* Drug supply is gate kept by veterinarians and pharmacists

Animals should be given preventative care (or herd health)

Diagnosis should be made before prescribing drugs
* There should be a treatment plan

Management changes
* Sometimes you just need to move the animals
* Sometimes you need to vaccinate them more often
* Change biosecurity policies

Question 8

Catagories of hazards

Food Safety

Answer 8

Biological (pathogenic bacteria)
Chemical (drug residues, pesticide residues)
Physical (Needles in meat, flies or straw in milk)

Question 9

Reasons for drug use in livestock

Answer 9

**Therapeutic **
* Treatment for infection, parasites, pain, inflammation etc.
* Nutrients to treat deficiencies
* Reproductive management (reproductive hormones)

Preventive
* Vaccines to prevent infection
* Nutrients to prevent malnutrition

Growth Promotion
* Antibiotics
* Creates the risk of antibiotic resistance
* Most antibiotics used in animals are not used for humans to mitigate the risk of antibiotic resistance
* Hormones
* We do not use hormones in pigs, chickens, and turkeys
* In most cases there are nano levels of hormones added
* Hormones are added very early in the animal’s lifespan

Question 10

How do we treat companion animals with drugs?

Answer 10

Drugs are used as often are they are used in human medicine

Includes many classes of drugs seldom or never used in food animals

They are treated for things not treated for in food animals
* Cancers
* Immune diseases
* Organ failures

We don’t need to worry about the animal residues, but some drug residues might need to be avoided
* Animal drugs have effects on humans too