Pew Charitable Trusts today applauded Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Susan Collins (R-ME), for introducing the Antimicrobial Data Collection Act, which would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, to report more information on the annual sales of antibiotics used among industrial farm animals. The bipartisan bill would also give the agency a deadline to finalize policies proposed last year to eliminate the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in meat production.
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"As a nation, we need to exercise greater care with our use of antibiotics, in both humans and animals, so that these medications remain effective in treating serious bacterial infections."
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It used to be easy to treat healthy children with common bacterial infections; a regimen of antibiotic pills could usually wipe out the disease. Today, patients might need to go home on intravenous antibiotics because oral therapies will no longer work. Antibiotic resistance is to blame.
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A past bout of salmonella led Maine resident Danielle Wadsworth to travel to Washington, D.C. this week to argue for stronger regulations to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock farming. She took part Wednesday in "Supermoms Against Superbugs," an initiative of the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.
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Dr. Cecilia Di Pentima is in Washington, D.C., for “Supermoms against Superbugs” to push for laws to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock farming — one of many fronts in the battle to preserve the effectiveness of the medicines. Family physicians in the South, including Tennessee, have also been identified as inadvertent purveyors of drug-resistant bacteria by prescribing too many antibiotics.
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"80 percent of all the antibiotics we pump out these days goes into animals and animal feed — cows, hogs, chickens, turkeys and more across America, chowing down daily on antibiotics in their feed. To make them grow faster. To allow them to live in crowded conditions. Health officials are clanging the alarm bell, saying that is overuse that is breeding antibiotic-resistant superbugs that we can’t stop, that kill. The meat industry says, “chill out.”
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"For decades, the meat industry has denied any problem with its reliance on routine, everyday antibiotic use for the nation's chickens, cows, and pigs. But it's a bit like a drunk denying an alcohol problem while leaning on a barstool for support. Antibiotic use on livestock farms has surged in recent years — from 20 million pounds annually in 2003 to nearly 30 million pounds in 2011."
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"Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration systematically monitor the meat and poultry sold in supermarkets around the country for the presence of disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. These food products are bellwethers that tell us how bad the crisis of antibiotic resistance is getting. And they’re telling us it’s getting worse."
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The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today adopted the Animal Drug User Fee Act, which failed to include provisions from Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that would improve the Food and Drug Administration's annual reporting of antibiotic sales for use on industrial farms.
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Meat and poultry producers routinely feed antibiotics to healthy animals to make them grow faster and to compensate for overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. These practices breed drug-resistant superbugs that make human diseases more difficult and costly to treat and more likely to cause death. Fortunately, on March 14, U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) introduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2013 (PAMTA) to restrict animal agricultural practices that threaten the public’s health.
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'Nightmare bacteria,' strains of superbugs resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics, have quadrupled in number in the last decade — and have been found lurking in hospitals in 42 states.
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"Study after study has found that the practice of feeding subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics to livestock to enhance growth is a threat to public health because it can lead to the breeding of antibiotic-resistant organisms, rendering essential drugs useless against disease-carrying organisms. Now there is alarming new evidence that unchecked antibiotic use in Chinese livestock farming has led to antibiotic-resistant genes in bacteria. China produces and uses more antibiotics than any other country, and nearly half the antibiotics it uses are fed to livestock."
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"The vast majority of antibiotics developed to treat people are given to the animals people eat. Farmers add low doses to feed and water to prevent disease in crowded livestock facilities. The drugs also promote growth. A bigger cow, pig, turkey or chicken translates into more money for producers. How does this widespread use in animals affect humans? It is killing us, a growing number of scientists say."
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Describing the routine use of antibiotics in meat and poultry production as a "serious threat to public health," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2010 called on livestock operations to voluntarily reduce their reliance on the medications. But an FDA report this month indicates that, so far, the results are unimpressive: Antibiotic sales to livestock operations rose in 2011, rather than falling.
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The Pew Charitable Trusts today applauded Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) for introducing the Delivering Antimicrobial Transparency in Animals (DATA) Act (H.R. 820) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would authorize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collect and report data that would shed light on how antibiotics are being used on industrial farms.
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Laura Rogers
Gail Hansen
