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Preventing Antibiotic Failures in Milk
Part 1: Why Antibiotic Failures are important to your business
To avoid a severe reduction in milk price
Milk purchasers have severe financial penalties for the presence of antibiotics in milk. Many will pay only one pence per litre for the first failure and less for subsequent failures. It is possible in the future that any losses incurred by a milk purchaser through having to discard contaminated milk will be also passed back to the producer. Clearly this would make the financial penalty even worse.
To protect consumer health
Antibiotics entering the food chain can cause severe allergic reactions in people and possibly an increase in antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Without doubt, it is essential we avoid such serious consequences.
To safeguard the excellent image of milk
This is critical for everybody involved in the dairy industry. A strong belief in the integrity of our product means the consumer will continue to purchase dairy products.
To prevent losses to milk processors
Traces of antibiotics have detrimental affects on the production of a variety of dairy products, including cheese and yogurt.
To comply with dairy regulations
It is a legal requirement to produce residue-free milk.
A Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) is set for all antibiotic products. This is the maximum concentration of a medicine that is legally permitted and acceptable under EU law.
Dairies use random sampling to test for residues. Samples are generally collected every day and therefore a sample may be tested from the bulk tank at any time.
Act quickly if you suspect contaminated milk has entered the system from a cow under treatment
- Stop milking at once
- Try to prevent the contaminated milk reaching the bulk supply
- Wash areas of the plant affected
- If in doubt, wash all the milking plant, using the full wash routine recommended
by the manufacturer.
- Telephone your milk purchaser
Your milk purchaser will inform you of the steps you need to take. This is likely to start with testing of your bulk tank milk. It is then important for you to identify the source of the antibiotic contamination and take steps to avoid a repeat of the problem. If you need help with this, ask your milk purchaser and veterinary surgeon. Make sure the telephone number of your milk purchaser is always to hand.
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