Trump team fires FDA staff reviewing drugs for pets and livestock

One casualty of the mass firings across federal health agencies are regulators who ensure drugs for pets and livestock are safe and effective.

The cuts hit the Center for Veterinary Medicine, an arm of the Food and Drug Administration that regulates the safety and efficacy of drugs, food and medical devices for animals.

The center’s work has an impact on many different animals, including household pets, like dogs, cats and hamsters. It’s also responsible for making sure that human food from animals being treated with medications (such as antibiotics and hormones) is safe to eat, including dairy cows, egg-laying hens and other livestock.

One staffer who received their termination letter over the weekend said the majority of their work had involved reviewing applications for drugs that are already on the market under conditional approval to make sure manufacturers were following quality standards and preventing contamination, among other things.

Like many other federal workers who were fired by the Trump administration, the individual was still in their probationary period — a prolonged trial of one to two years for new employees or those who have moved to new positions — which meant they had fewer worker protections.

FDA had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Marcos Contreras, director of pharmacy at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, says news of the cuts was concerning.

“Anything entering the [veterinary] market, just like a human drug, needs oversight and regulation to make sure that they are putting safe stuff out there,” he says.

“We want to be able to trust the medications,” the person said, adding that they worry overworked reviewers could miss “critical aspects of concern that will affect safety and efficacy.”

What’s more, the cuts may not save the government money, the sources said. The majority of salaries of many of the terminated staffers are paid by user fees, which veterinary drug companies pay the FDA to hire more staff and ensure product reviews happen in a timely manner.

The cuts affect a relatively small team. And they coincide with an order to return to in-person work, which may lead to others who were hired as remote workers to resign, the other FDA staffer said.

This could have implications not only for pets like cats and dogs, but also for humans who consume animal products.