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Cure for unwanted livestock drugs is at hand
By By Tom VanDusen - AgriNews Staff Writer

OMAFRA is testing out in Eastern Ontario a possible cure for the chronic sore point of what to do with unwanted livestock medicine.

It’s not that the medicine is necessarily being dumped in the wrong places, says Dr. Bill Holley, chief veterinarian inspector based in Lindsay. The fact of the matter is the ministry doesn’t know what happens to it.

"It could be a lot like our own outdated personal medications which stay on a bathroom shelf because we don’t know what else to do with them," Holley suggests. "Unwanted livestock medicine may just remain stored in the barn for lack of alternative."

That presents a hazard to farmers in that someone with less experience could reach for the wrong container when treating a sick animal.

And with nowhere else to put it, the ministry fears some discarded medicine may end up polluting groundwater and watercourses. In the era of Walkerton, it wants to prevent such occurrences.

With all of that in mind, the ministry has launched a pilot project called "Bring It Back" which provides five no cost licensed drop-off points for farmers through which to safely dispose of unwanted medical supplies.

If successful in this area, the ministry hopes to set up a network of volunteer collection points at agricultural retailers right across the province. Holley said no minimum usage criteria have been established under which to judge the program a success.

Kemptville-based OMAFRA animal care specialist Craig Richardson said producers may drop off expired or partially full containers of unwanted medicine as well as their empty containers.

"All products with drug identification numbers, vaccines and other medicines may be returned to the five outlets," Richardson said.

Those outlets include: Canadian Co-Operative Wool Growers at Carleton Place; Agri-West Co-Op, Kemptville; Agri-Est Co-Op, St. Isidore; M & R Feeds & Farm Supply, Micksburg; and Kinburn Farm Supply Ltd. The participating retailers have been supplied with posters identifying their participation in the program.

Project co-sponsor Medical Waste Management (MWM) Inc. has provided the outlets with 6.5 gallon leak-proof, re-sealable pails; when the pails are full, they’ll be shipped back to MWM for safe disposal.

Holley said the program helps plug a gap in the Livestock Medicines Act which permits retailers to legally sell livestock drugs but doesn’t cover the issue of how to handle discards.

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