FDA Remains Concerned About Antibiotics in Ag

October 20, 2010 — 

The US Food and Drug Administration is continuing to take a "very serious" look at the link between the use of antibiotics in agriculture and the growing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

Hamburg discussed the antibiotics issue during a question-and-answer session following her remarks at the National Press Club on the agency's initiative to boost regulatory science. Hamburg was asked why, considering the growing public health threat posed by drug resistance, antibiotics were still being routinely administered to food animals to promote growth or prevent disease.

"It's a very important question. There has been a very considerable use of antibiotics as part of animal husbandry as well as aquaculture," said Hamburg. "For many years individuals at organizations in public health and medicine have raised various concerns about [the impact] ...on human health and the availability of effective antibiotics to treat disease."

"We are in the midst of very serious scrutiny of these issues, and we have made recommendations in support of judicious use of antibiotics," she said. "Nobody wants to deny antibiotics to animals that need medical treatment, but the use in certain preventive contexts, where its not clearly medically indicated, is of growing concern."

Source:
Food Safety News, October 12, 2010