A report released last summer by the U.S. General Accounting Office suggests that current government and industry practices to control and monitor animal drug residues in milk are inadequate. Researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine have been addressing this issue at several levels. Dr. James S. Cullor, an assistant professor of clinical pathology, is developing vaccines for dairy cattle that provide the cows with a "natural" immunity and designing methods for more accurately testing the presence of drug residues in the milk supply. Cullor believes that chemical tests commonly used to screen for antibiotics in the milk of commercial dairy cows often falsely indicate the presence of antibiotic residues. Dr. Bennie Osburn, associate dean of research, helps oversee a 3-year-old residue avoidance program at the UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, Calif. Responding to consumer concerns, an alliance of six veterinary and agricultural colleges began this model food safety program to train veterinarians in alternatives to the use of antibiotics. Osburn characterizes the program, with 9,000 dairy cows enrolled to date, as "one of the boldest moves away from the traditional ways of managing health in large populations of animals." Farmers voluntarily put the prescribing and dispensing of antibiotics and other antibacterial medications into the hands of veterinarians.