Cephalosporins Banned in Semen Extenders

April 24, 2012 — 

The AASV recently received some questions regarding the impact of the recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) order restricting the extra-label use of cephalosporins in food producing animals on the drug’s use in semen extenders. While acknowledging that this practice constitutes “negligible risk”, the FDA has determined that such application constitutes an extra-label use and is not exempt from the order banning such use. Therefore, the use of semen extenders containing cephalosporin is illegal.