Man Sold Meat with Illegal Drug Residue

Posted on November 21, 2009 in Animals, Consumer Goods, Health & Medicine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking action against a Maryland veal calf dealer who sold drug-tainted meat for human consumption. William F. Nickle allegedly was responsible for the drug flunixin being found in edible tissue of veal calves.

Flunixin is an anti-inflammatory drug injected into cattle to control abnormal rise in body temperature associated with bovine respiratory disease. The meat that Nickle sold contained unsafe levels of the drug that might have impacted human health. The FDA requires animals to be withdrawn from drug treatments prior to slaughter, so the drug is depleted from edible tissue.

This isn’t Nickle’s first run-in with the FDA. He has received several oral and written warnings in the past and continued to disobey the law.