The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned meat-producing farmers that it will take more serious regulatory steps if farmers do not voluntarily stop providing antibiotics to their animals for purposes other than treating or preventing sickness. Farmers routinely provide drugs to livestock in order to spur their growth.
The FDA is taking this stance due to the fact many in the medical community are concerned about a glut of new, powerful bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein stated that the matter has become an urgent public health issue.
The European Union outlawed the use of antibiotic use in livestock in 2006 and some U.S. legislators have recently proposed their own legislation to speed up the process that the FDA has proposed. The FDA in 1977 initiated its efforts to limit the use of antibiotics in meat production, but the agricultural lobby and other supporters have quashed the FDA’s initiatives every time.
There have always been two sides to the antibiotic story, and farming representatives such as the National Pork Council are still asking for more hard evidence before strict guidelines are enacted on livestock antibiotics.
Brad Spellberg, an infectious-disease specialist and instructor at UCLA, claims there his book “Rising Plague” provides more than enough evidence to show that the public is increasingly in harm’s way if it eats beef, pork and chicken. Spellberg says that the number of effective antibiotic drugs is decreasing, and that new drugs are not being developed fast enough to replace them.
The FDA states that most of the antibiotics that are given to meat-producing animals are critically important to humans, including penicillin, tetracyclines and sulfonamides. The Animal Health Institute has joined the FDA on its stance that antibiotics must be provided to animals judiciously.
Most groups that agree also are not naïve enough to believe that farmers will simply stop administering antibiotics if simply asked, or even if tougher legislation is passed. Farmers can simply state they are providing preventive medications to keep their livestock healthy, the groups say.
The success of any FDA regulations or legislation from Congress may depend on the second stipulation proposed by the FDA: that all antibiotics must be administered under the supervision of a veterinarian, which in some cases may limit farmers’ ability to obtain the drugs or place them in the feed or water of livestock.
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