Stilbosol patenting turned the cattle feed industry upside down in the mid fifties with its phenomenal use by the farmers and feeders
Wise Burroughs – image credit Iowa State University of Science and Technology.
… ” One of the most important and far-reaching events in the department in the early 1950s was the patenting of defined levels of diethylstilbestrol (DES), a growth-promoting hormone, to feed beef cattle for improved growth and efficiency.
The saga includes how Wise Burroughs found that quality clover hay contained estrogens that enhanced growth, and how he, by studying the literature on DES, determined the levels to produce the desired effects, but not the negative ones. The work with the Iowa State College Research Foundation to secure the patent, the feud with colleagues at Ames and Purdue, the announcement at Cattle Feeder’s Day in 1954 that turned the feed industry upside down, the struggle to secure FDA approval, the involvement of President Hilton in the licensing done with Lilly, and the phenomenal use of Stilbosol by the feeders make a story worthy of the book about it by A.I. Marcus in 1994. The events changed the way new technology was utilized and controlled by the Food and Drug Adminstration. Eventually DES was banned in 1979. A portion of the proceeds from the patent built Lush Auditorium, and the use of DES enhanced the profitability of cattle feeding. ” …
Chinese officials claim they have found traces of the banned drugs in shipments
” … China has been making noise about trace residue of ractopamine hydrochloride in pork imported from here. This is a drug to improve the ratio of lean meat to fat and is approved as a feed additive in our country but banned in China, the European Union and some other countries. It is sold by Elanco, the ag division of Eli Lilly, under the brand name Paylean ... ”
” … The United States has long been more tolerant of drugs and hormones as feed additives than most other countries, especially those in Europe. The current dispute mimics a long one we had with the European Union about residues of diethylstilbestrol and other growth-promoting hormones in U.S. beef exports… ”
