The Food and Drug Administration says that routine antibiotic use in food-producing animals is an urgent public health issue that can no longer be ignored.
FDA has issued draft guidance intended to help reduce the development of resistance to medically important antimicrobial drugs used in cattle, hogs and chickens. The 19-page document summarizes a number of published reports on antimicrobial resistance and - according to FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein - states...
“The overall weight of evidence available to date, supports the conclusion that the usually important antimicrobial drugs for production purposes is not in the best interest of promoting human health.”
The guidance calls for antibiotics that are medically important to humans - such as penicillin and tetracycline - to be used in animals only when necessary to assure their health. It also says those antibiotics should be administered with veterinary oversight or consultation. Bernadette Dunham is the director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine...
“Veterinarians can play a critical role in the diagnosis of disease and the decision process related to instituting measures to treat, control or prevent disease. As I’ve said many times, using medically important antimicrobial drugs as judiciously as possible is key to minimizing the development of resistance and persevering the effectiveness as therapies for both humans and animals.”
The draft guidance does not have the force of law but may be treated as such by FDA - according to Sharfstein - if animal drug makers and the animal agriculture community fail to address the problem on their own...
“We’re not expecting for people to pick up this guidance and change their practice tomorrow. This is the first step in FDA establishing a principle from which we can move, if necessary, to other mechanisms of oversight, such as regulation.”
FDA is accepting public comment on the guidance for the next 60 days.
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