WASHINGTON – In light of new data from a groundbreaking Reuters report showing widespread, indiscriminate use of antibiotics in meat production, Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), the only microbiologist in Congress, renewed her call for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action to protect antibiotics for human use. Slaughter is currently leading legislation to stop the indiscriminate use of eight critical classes of antibiotics in meat production, as well as a bill requiring the FDA to collect and publicize more data about antibiotic usage from the agriculture industry.
Slaughter responded to the Reuters report, renewed her call for government action, and urged lawmakers on the Energy and Commerce Committee to address the issue at a hearing scheduled for Friday:
“Since 1999, I have been calling for an end to the overuse of antibiotics on the farm,” Rep. Slaughter said. “Industry has kept data showing the rampant, dangerous use of antibiotics hidden from the public for one reason: to protect corporate profits at the expense of public health. It is unconscionable but not surprising that the agribusiness and pharmaceutical companies are still calling the shots. Worse yet, federal agencies have been helpless because they are afraid of litigation. Agencies charged with protecting Americans’ health should not have to wait for the opinion of a judge before fulfilling their obligations.”
“Researchers, the medical community, and consumers have a growing and clear understanding of the risks posed by the misuse of antibiotics in agriculture. Two million Americans are infected every year with antibiotic resistant infections and over 23,000 die because of them. This is a matter of life and death and it’s time for Congress and the FDA to get their heads out of the sand and take action.”
The Reuters report cites over 320 feed tickets obtained from the agriculture industry showing widespread and indiscriminate use of antibiotics that are important to human health – including penicillin and tetracyclines. The report also documented the widespread use of antibiotics for promoting growth, contrary to claims by industry that antibiotics are mainly used for disease prevention – a practice to compensate for crowded and unsanitary conditions that leave animals more vulnerable to infection. In one situation, 34 of 55 feed tickets obtained from Koch Foods showed that, “antibiotics at low-dose levels were listed ‘for increased rate of weight gain,’ a related growth-promotion use called ‘improved feed efficiency,’ or both.”
Just as troubling is the report’s revelation that the FDA has simply not reviewed the vast majority of animal drugs containing antibiotics for their risks of spawning superbugs. According to the report, FDA “has evaluated the superbug risks for only about 7 percent of the approximately 390 drugs containing antibiotics that the agency has certified for veterinary use in chicken, pigs and cattle.”
When antibiotics are used indiscriminately, bacteria mutate to become resistant to antibiotic treatment, escalating the prospects of incurable microbial infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2 million Americans get antibiotic-resistant infections every year, and 23,000 die from those infections. In 2011, Rep. Slaughter’s office determined that 80 percent of the antibiotics purchased in the United States are used in meat production – a figure that has been verified by fact-checkers. Because of the sheer volume of use by the agriculture industry, it is imperative that any solution to the antibiotic-resistance crisis begin on the farm.
The problem has been exacerbated by FDA inaction. In 1977, the FDA deemed the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture an unnecessary risk and seemed poised to take action. But for over 30 years, the FDA has refused to enforce meaningful limits on the use of antibiotics in agriculture. In December 2013, after decades of inaction, FDA handed down a voluntary and unenforceable guidance, which has been widely panned as symbolic and ineffective. The guidance simply asks drug companies – which have resisted regulation for decades – to remove “growth promotion” as a use for antibiotics from the labels of antibiotics sold to farms. However, the guidance gives companies three years to voluntarily comply, still allows antibiotics to be sold for disease prevention, and requires no reporting of data or any enforcement measures to ensure compliance. In fact, Juan Ramon Alaix, CEO of Zoetis, the world’s largest animal pharmaceutical company, revealed that the FDA’s approach would not curb the problem of overuse, saying the guidance “will not have a significant impact on our revenues.” Furthermore, despite FDA claims that all major drug producers are complying with the guidance, reports showed a Swiss drug maker was caught marketing at least one of its antibiotics for growth promotion with no retaliation by the FDA.
The industry has fought to avoid regulation not only by federal agencies, but by Congress as well. In the 112th Congress, out of 225 lobbying reports filed on Representative Slaughter’s Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), which would save eight critical classes of antibiotics for human use, 87.5 percent of those reports were filed by industry groups hostile to regulation. Rep. Slaughter’s legislation to require more transparency from industry on antibiotic use – the Delivering Antimicrobial Transparency in Animals (DATA) Act – has been met with similar opposition. Over 450 scientific, medical, and consumer organizations including the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization have endorsed PAMTA.
Source: Office of Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY)
