The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against Syfrett Feed Company of Okeechobee, Florida for distributing misbranded and adulterated medicated animal feed. According to the complaint, the company’s medicated animal feeds did not list the names of active drug ingredients and did not include adequate instruction for use, including feeding limitations, dose administration, and cautionary statements for the use of drugs in combination with other drugs.
The complaint also alleges that the feed was not manufactured in conformity with current good manufacturing practices for medicated feeds. The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to “establish and maintain adequate procedures for the identification, storage, and inventory control of drugs intended for use in their medicated feeds, and failed to establish and use adequate procedures for all equipment used in the production and distribution of medicated feeds to avoid unsafe contamination of animal feeds.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a statement, “Animal feed manufacturers that fail to comply with labeling and good manufacturing requirements for medicated animal feeds jeopardize the health of animals. The Department of Justice and FDA will continue to work together to ensure that animal feed manufacturers produce safe medicated animal feed products.”
The complaint also alleges that Syfrett Feed recalled its non-medicated horse pellet food in April 2014 after customers complained that their horses were getting sick. The complaint states that 15 horses had to be euthanized. Then, in September 2014, two more horses had to be euthanized after eating Syfrett Feed’s horse pellet food. Syfrett Feed then discontinued manufacturing medicated and non-medicated feeds for horses.
The consent decree resolves the litigation. The defendants must adhere to the law’s labeling requirements and current good manufacturing practices for medicated animal feeds. Syfrett Feed must also stop manufacturing medical animal feed until the company implements specified remedial measures. Those measures include, according to the complaint, “retaining an expert to conduct an inspection of Syfrett Feed and certifying that the company’s manufacturing methods, facilities and controls are in conformity with current good manufacturing practices for medicated feeds.”
