FDA pushes producers to limit antibiotics for cattle
by
Amy West
Story Created:
Sep 1, 2010 at 8:53 PM CST
Story Updated:
Sep 1, 2010 at 11:19 PM CST
The U.S Food and Drug Administration calls it one of the most urgent priorities in the field of public health today as they encourage producers not to give some antibiotics to livestock.
After hard work, care, and grooming cattle farmers bring their prized livestock to the Nebraska State Fair. But making it there often takes some medical help.
"Our biggest problem in the livestock industry is respiratory diseases that are pneumonia based and those things are debilitating to animals and if they get real sick they really suffer," said Jay Volk.
To combat this farmers use antibiotics — either an injection for immediate illnesses or a daily dose as a preventative measure.
The daily dose of antibiotics come in a pellet or powder form and its mixed in with the animal's feed. Now, calves only receive this up until they're about 8–months–old and not getting it could mean lung disease.
The FDA's concern stems from an increase of antibiotic resistance.
"We know that the use of these drugs can contribute to that antibiotic resistance and we want to look at talking measures to prevent that from continuing," said FDA spokesperson Siobhan DeLancey.
DeLancey said using antibiotics to cure or prevent illnesses are completely valid uses. They're looking more at production uses.
"There are also feeds, specifically medical feeds, that are used less for disease prevention and more for the production aspect for weight gain and increased muscle mass so those are the types that we really want to take a harder look at," said DeLancey.
And that's what they're doing - seeing if changes can be made without hurting the industry.
"The American public should be very confident that their food supply is the safest in the world," said Volk.
The FDA stresses it's still very early in this project. The public comment period ended Tuesday. Now the FDA says they will examine research and comments to see how feasible it is to phase out production uses of antibiotics without adversely hurting the industry.
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