According to a report from the Associated Press found on ABC news online, last year 70 percent of the 35 million pounds of antibiotics that this nation used last year actually went to farm animals like chickens, pigs, and cows in order to cause these animals to grow faster and be resistant to certain infections and diseases. This amounts to 28 million pounds. Worldwide roughly 50 percent of all antibiotic use is for animals.The problem for some is this can cause the animals to carry new, drug-resistant infections that people are not used to dealing with. And because the same antibiotics that would be used to treat the diseases in humans have been put in the animals, the antibiotics are not as effective against these new diseases, some of which can be deadly. According to the AP story, “[r]esearchers say the overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals has led to a plague of drug resistant infections that killed more than 65,000 people in the U.S. last year—more than prostate and breast cancer combined.”
These numbers and other pressures have caused the World Health Organization to conclude that “surging antibiotic resistance is one of the leading threats to human health, and the White House last month said the problem is ‘urgent.’” Joining the World Health Organization, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US Department of Agriculture have “declared drug-resistant diseases stemming from antibiotic use in animals a ‘serious emerging concern.’”
Thus far, political pressure from pharmaceutical companies and farm groups has defeated proposals to limit the use of these antibiotics. Farmers maintain the antibiotic use is crucial to their operations as the antibiotics fight off infections that harm their livestock, and thus their bottom line.
To deal with this issue Rep. Louise Slaughter (NY) has introduced legislation, H.R. 1549, which is called the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009. The bill currently has 100 cosponsors. The legislation would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act “to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to deny an application for a new animal drug that is a critical antimicrobial animal drug unless the applicant demonstrates that there is a reasonably [sic] certainty of no harm to human health due to the development of antimicrobial resistance attributable to the nontherapeutic use of the drug.”
While the legislation does enjoy a lot of support among members of Congress, farm industry and drug industry groups are likely to oppose the legislation, which could mean defeat or the possibility the bill will not come to the floor, as both lobbies are very powerful in Washington. Regardless, it is unlikely Congress will take up the legislation in the early part of 2010 as health care, climate change, the war on terror, and the 2011 budget will dominate the congressional calendar for the first part of the year.
To read the AP story at ABC news online click here.
To see the Slaughter bill click here.
Posted: 12/29/09
