FDA: Antibiotics in Animals Pose Risk
This topic has been in the news quite a bit lately, along with genetically modified organisms and cloned animals, but I think the use of antibiotics in food production poses a much bigger risk. The FDA has announced that they believe giving animals antibiotics for the purposes of increasing food production poses a threat to public health (link). The practice is giving rise to drug-resistant bacteria because the antibiotics are being administered to animals before they get sick.
The FDA has issued draft guidance on the matter and the guidance is based on two principles:
- Antibiotics should only be given to food animals if it’s to protect their health,
- All antibiotic use by animals should be overseen by veterinarians.
“We are seeing the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens,” FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, MD, said at a news conference. “FDA believes overall weight of evidence supports the conclusion that using medically important antimicrobial drugs for production purposes is not appropriate.”
This is scary stuff.
