The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to withdraw rules limiting the use of human antibiotics in animal feed, much to the dismay of environmental and consumer groups.

 

The FDA used the holiday season to quietly make the policy change by publishing its announcement in the federal register.

 

Health advocates argue that the inclusion of antibiotics such as penicillin, cephalosporin and tetracyclines in agricultural animal feed contributes to the development of drug-resistant superbugs. The FDA itself has repeatedly agreed with this finding, having first acknowledged in 1977 that too much utilization of antibiotics in healthy livestock could prove unsafe.

 

In addition, if an animal doesn’t eat its required daily dose of food, it also doesn’t ingest its required daily dose of antibiotics, and whatever harmful bacteria are being fought are not wiped out.

 

Rather than regulate the medications, the FDA now expects the farming industry to self-regulate itself on the use of antibiotics.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

FDA Draws Criticism after U-Turn on Antibiotics in Animal Feed (by Karen McVeigh, The Guardian)

FDA Won’t Act Against Ag Antibiotic Use (by Maryn McKenna, Wired)

FDA Documents Show Agency Once Strongly Opposed Farm Antibiotic Overuse (by Maryn McKenna, Wired)