Immobilon in Deer

Jelendeer

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

There seems to be some confusion about the 'dangers' of eating venison from deer that have been darted using immobilon.

Immobilon is incredibly toxic to humans, and a very small amount can kill humans in a matter of minutes.

It is a fact that deer treated with Immobilon CANNOT go into the human food chain.

The reason being that Large Animal Immobilon is NOT LICENSED for food animals in the UK.

Until only a few years ago, Immobilon had a withdrawal period of 28 days, meaning that venison - or any other food animals - was safe to eat after that period.

So what's changed? ............ None of the drug companies want to pay to get the drug licensed again. This is likely to cost 100's of thousands of pounds, and for the relatively small amounts that are sold each year, it's simply just not worth it. So now it's not licensed.

In reality, once the drug has metabolised by the liver and diluted in the blood, then it's toxicity is very limited indeed. After 28 days have passed, then I doubt there will be any harmful residues left in the meat whatsoever.

Prior to the drug becoming unlicensed, I have personally eaten a great deal of venison from darted animals and never been affected in any way ........... (I did go fat and bald, but I reckon that was more to do with the natural ageing process rather than eating poisoned meat!)

Hope that clears a few things up.

Regards,

Mike
(Director - Jelen Deer Services) Jelen Deer- Committed to excellence
 
Plus one for having eaten plenty of venision that had previously been darted with immobilon with no side effects.
 
With Immobilon being so toxic why "ever" would someone take that risk, of knowingly eat the meat of a darted beast ?? Why dice with the chance of becoming seriously ill. I don,t get it. :eek:
 
With Immobilon being so toxic why "ever" would someone take that risk, of knowingly eat the meat of a darted beast ?? Why dice with the chance of becoming seriously ill. I don,t get it. :eek:

As the man says it used to have a withdrawal period of 28 days and it still does in a number of European countries I believe.
 
One has to ask, why does it need to be "relicenced" periodically?

Surely, unless there is some new risk identified, the licence should remain in place. Or is it, as I suspect, a good wheeze for the government, a great way of raising funds?
 
With Immobilon being so toxic why "ever" would someone take that risk, of knowingly eat the meat of a darted beast ?? Why dice with the chance of becoming seriously ill. I don,t get it. :eek:

Because up until recently as long as the deer had a minimum withdrawl period of 28 days (28 days between Immobilon having been administered and the animal being culled) the drug was licensed for use in animals going for human consumption. I may be mistaken but I think Immobilon is still licensed for food animals elsewhere in the world.
 
Just to put things into perspective, I can guarantee that more or less all of us red meat stuffing gluttons would have eaten beef, pork, lamb, chicken etc from animals which have been treated with some sort of medication. When I was rearing beef cattle simple things that had to be done on a regular basis like worming or treating for ectoparasites in the summer could mean that I could not send cattle for slaughter for up to 52 days after the end of the treatment depending on the products I used.

As far as renewal of licences are concerned, all chemicals, compounds, medicines (even ones for us lot) have to be reviewed at set periods. Even paracetamol gets reviewed, so if a product isn't selling then there's no point in going through the expense of the review. The other thing to remember is that every country has different rules and allow drugs that our government doesn't. I remember years ago Red Smarties were not mixed into packs bound for Russia because Russia had banned the colourant that we used in the UK. Food for thought!!!

Ade
 
Until only a few years ago, Immobilon had a withdrawal period of 28 days, meaning that venison - or any other food animals - was safe to eat after that period.

So what's changed? ............ None of the drug companies want to pay to get the drug licensed again. This is likely to cost 100's of thousands of pounds, and for the relatively small amounts that are sold each year, it's simply just not worth it. So now it's not licensed.

In reality, once the drug has metabolised by the liver and diluted in the blood, then it's toxicity is very limited indeed. After 28 days have passed, then I doubt there will be any harmful residues left in the meat whatsoever.

Prior to the drug becoming unlicensed, I have personally eaten a great deal of venison from darted animals and never been affected in any way ...........

The fact that people have eaten darted deer and apparently suffered no ill effects means nothing.

The reason licences have to be renewed are multiple but stem from on going surveillance of problems with the drug, improved testing and reducing threasholds for residues and food safety. Any drug that is to be used in food producing animals must have a maximum residue level (MRL), the active ingredient in Immobilon does not. An animal treated with a drug with no MRL cannot ever enter the food chain. There is no confusion it is very simple.

We cannot say that it's not harmful as we haven't done the work to show it is.

The rules are simple - not sure your post clears anything up, just muddies the water further. We don't want people thinking it's ok to eat these deer, because we don't know if it is safe and it is completely illegal.
 
The fact that people have eaten darted deer and apparently suffered no ill effects means nothing.

The reason licences have to be renewed are multiple but stem from on going surveillance of problems with the drug, improved testing and reducing threasholds for residues and food safety. Any drug that is to be used in food producing animals must have a maximum residue level (MRL), the active ingredient in Immobilon does not. An animal treated with a drug with no MRL cannot ever enter the food chain. There is no confusion it is very simple.

We cannot say that it's not harmful as we haven't done the work to show it is.

The rules are simple - not sure your post clears anything up, just muddies the water further. We don't want people thinking it's ok to eat these deer, because we don't know if it is safe and it is completely illegal.

Thanks for your information Apache,

You are absolutely right in everything you pointed out. My original post was in response to another post on another thread:

The big problem with park deer is that some of them have been darted with Imobilon, which makes them deadly if consumed, this is bad for venison sales when restaunt eaters start keeling over , not so bad when the poacher's eat it and keel over , but ieather way it is bad publicity for Venison.

What the above post suggests is that eating some park deer could have 'deadly' consequences.

I would like to point out that ANY deer darted with Immobilon MUST have tags clearly stating 'DO NOT EAT'. When those animals die, or are killed, then the carcass should be incinerated at approved premises and records to confirm that the animal has been disposed of correctly.

I echo your comment, we DO NOT want people to be eating these deer, and it is ILLEGAL for such animals to enter the human food chain. What I do want to make clear is that eating deer from parks is NOT going to make the eater keel over and die. Any park deer that have been darted WILL be marked accordingly and MUST NOT enter the human food chain.

Finally, you are right, we cannot say that its NOT harmful as the work hasn't been done to show it is. But to my knowledge no work been done to show that it ISN'T harmful either.

What I am saying is that up until a few years ago Immobilon had a 28 day withdrawal period, and prior to the withdrawal of the license, I am not aware of any cases (documented or otherwise) of people becoming ill after eating deer darted with Immobilon. I would be very interested to hear of any though.

I certainly do NOT wish to 'muddy any water', and I apologise if this is what my first post did.

Regards,

Mike
(Director - Jelen Deer Services) Jelen Deer- Committed to excellence
 
We don't want people thinking it's ok to eat these deer, because we don't know if it is safe and it is completely illegal.

Is it true that a number of European countries having a different view about this issue.
 
As someone who was previously involved in the live capture and subsequent release of wild, free living and other deer, (red, fallow & roe), using LAI and other drugs at the time the ban came into force, I've had more than a passing interest in this subject.

There's no doubt that cost considerations were/are the reason that the manufacturers have not sought to have their product tested for use in food chain animals - the small quantities sold each year simply wouldn't justify the expense - and given it's relatively limited scope for use as a capture 'drug of choice' being mainly large ruminants, it's really a no-brainer as to why the authorities pulled the plug if they didn't have the safety data readily available.

Is the situation the same elsewhere? Probably is now within the EU given the homogenisation of Food Standards. The FARAD (USA) website contains no specific information. Interestingly there is a Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre document that quotes a 30 day Etorphine withdrawal period for wildlife but is "no data available" (?) for captive red deer and domestic livestock - it also neatly mirrors the Immobilon/deer situation by describing the costs of licensing and research into Telazol/Polar Bears. Worth a read:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=icwdmccwhcnews&sei-redir=1#search=%22Immobilon+in+food+animals%22
 
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