FDA Orders Antibiotics Limited in Livestock Used for Meat
Because of a growing demand from consumers who don’t want antibiotics used on meat-producing livestock before slaughter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday, January 4, issued an order requiring farmers to stop using the antibiotic group cephalosporins. Unless meat is raised organically, just before animals are slaughtered, cows, turkeys, pigs, and chickens are injected with the antibiotic, purportedly to reduce the number of infections animals share in confined modern farming (also known as ‘factory farming’).
This is the same class of drugs that humans rely on to treat pneumonia, bacterial infections, salmonella infections, and other life-threatening diseases, reports the St. Augustine Record. Using the same drug in a food source renders them useless, and humans really need them to fight disease since the bacteria in the body has evolved to develop resistance to the antibiotic. Antibiotic resistant strains of superbugs have evolved in recent years, so supporters say it’s about time to stop using antibiotics in food sources.
The FDA says farm operators will still be able to use approved cephapirin products on animals to control disease and in so-called “minor species” of animals. Cephapirin is the first-generation of the cephalosporin antibiotic. Critics of the FDA say the announced ban does not go far enough because it still allows antibiotic use in meat-producing animals.
Since there are no new antibiotics on the horizon to fight bacterial infections, most medical professionals, as well as the FDA, consider it paramount to keep our modern-day antibiotics effective.
Cephalosporins are a broad spectrum antibiotics and a drug of last resort when other antibiotics have lost their effectiveness. Drugs for animals used for human consumption were supposed to be limited in 2008, but the Bush administration reversed the decision after heavy lobbying from drug companies and trade groups. Under the Obama administration, the FDA said it planned to take action, but had done nothing until Wednesday.
Source: http://ap.staugustine.com/pstories/health/20120104/937067127.shtml; http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/ucm054434.htm
