70 Percent of All Antibiotics Given to Healthy Livestock

[Guest guest]

source : http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2001/101_chic.html

70 Percent of All Antibiotics Given to Healthy Livestock

Mar 06, 2005 18:22 PST

 

70 Percent of All Antibiotics Given to Healthy Livestock

Union of Concerned Scientists 8jan01

http://www.mindfully.org/Health/Antibiotics-Healthy-Livestock-UCS.htm

 

Excessive use of antibiotics by meat producers, 8 times more than in

human medicine, contributes to alarming increase in antibiotic

resistance

 

WASHINGTON - Every year in the United States 25 million pounds of

valuable antibiotics -- roughly 70 percent of total US antibiotic

production -- are fed to chickens, pigs, and cows for nontherapeutic

purposes like growth promotion, according to a new report from the Union

of Concerned Scientists. This finding -- 40 percent greater than the

estimate of the livestock industry for all animal uses -- is the first

transparent estimate of the quantities of antibiotics used in meat

production.

 

The report is also the first to show that the quantities of antibiotics

used in animal agriculture dwarf those used in human medicine.

Nontherapeutic livestock use in chickens, pigs, and cows accounts for 8

times more antibiotics than human medicine, which is using only 3

million pounds per year.

 

" The meat industry's share of the antibiotic-resistance problem has been

ignored for too long, " said Dr. Margaret Mellon, Director of the Food

and Environment Program at UCS and co-author of the new report.

" Antibiotics are a precious resource and should be used in animals only

when necessary. "

 

Until now, health officials and citizens had to rely on incomplete

industry estimates to design effective responses to the

antibiotic-resistance problem. According to the new UCS report, " Hogging

It: Estimates of Antimicrobial Abuse in Livestock, " the total use of

antibiotics in healthy livestock has climbed from 16 million pounds in

the mid-1980s to 25 million pounds today. Of that, approximately 10

million pounds are used in hogs, 11 million pounds in poultry, and 4

million pounds in cattle.

 

" The excessive use of antibiotics by the livestock industry is

sobering, " said Dr. Charles Benbrook, an independent economist and

co-author of the report. " Feeding antibiotics to animals from birth to

slaughter may modestly improve meat industry profits, but it puts

everyone's health at risk. It is time to rethink how pigs, cattle and

poultry are raised in the United States. "

 

Available industry data appear to underestimate the usage of antibiotics

and are far too general to help scientists explore the linkages between

drug use in livestock and the spread of resistance. With no

government-backed data available, the authors of the report devised a

methodology for calculating antibiotic use in livestock operations from

publicly available information, including herd size, approved drug

lists, and dosages. The researchers acknowledge the need for more

complete, up-to-date data on livestock antibiotic use. They invite the

pharmaceutical industry, which holds the production data, and the animal

livestock industry, which could compile usage information, to bring

better data to the public arena. But new data must be transparent and

verifiable.

 

" The public has been flying blind, " said Mellon. " The government should

act now to collect the needed data. The price of complacency could set

us back to an era where untreatable infectious diseases are regrettably

commonplace. "

 

UCS recommends that the Food and Drug Administration establish a system

to compel companies that sell antibiotics for livestock use to provide

annual reports on the quantity of these drugs sold. The US Department of

Agriculture should improve the completeness and accuracy of its periodic

surveys of antibiotic use in livestock. The FDA, USDA, and Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention should speed up implementation of its

government-wide action plan, which calls for the establishment of

monitoring systems and the assessment of ways to collect and protect the

confidentiality of usage data.

 

The FDA, which oversees the approval and cancellation of veterinary

drugs, will discuss the use of antimicrobial drugs in food animals at a

public meeting, January 22-24.

 

A full copy of the new report can be found on the web at www.ucsusa.org

.. The Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit alliance of thousands

of committed citizens and leading scientists working to preserve our

health, protect our safety and enhance our quality of life. UCS has used

rigorous scientific analysis, innovative policy development, and

effective citizen advocacy to achieve practical environmental solutions.

 

* PLEASE NOTE: In this press release we use the terms antibiotic and

antimicrobial interchangeably. The term antimicrobial encompasses

substances, whether naturally occurring or synthetically produced,

directed against all microorganisms. Antibiotic is a narrower term that

some scientists reserve for only naturally occurring substances that

destroy or inhibit the growth of bacteria.

 

 

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antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on the rise. Patients once effectively

treated for pneumonia, tuberculosis, or ear infections may now have to

try three or more antibiotics before they find one that works. And as

more bacterial strains develop resistance, more people will die, because

effective antibiotics are not identified quickly enough or because the

bacteria causing their disease are resistant to all available

antibiotics.

 

Why have bacterial strains become resistant? The short answer is overuse

of antibiotics. Physicians and hospitals have overprescribed the drugs,

and patients have demanded them -- even for illnesses not caused by

bacteria.

 

Veterinarians, too, overprescribe drugs to treat sick animals, and even

more, livestock producers use massive amounts to promote animal growth

and make their business more efficient and profitable. On top of that,

growers spray antibiotics on crops to control bacteria that damage

vegetables and kill trees.

While medicine must act to slow the emergence of resistant bacteria, it

is equally important to eliminate uses -- primarily agricultural --

whose benefits are economic, not therapeutic. Roughly a third of all

antibiotics produced in the United States -- about 80 percent of the

antibiotics used in agriculture -- are fed to animals to bring them up

to slaughter weight as quickly as possible. Both the Centers for Disease

Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization have called for an end

to this abuse of antibiotics we depend on in human medicine.

 

UCS has launched a campaign to urge the Food and Drug Administration to

ban the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. Such a ban would have

the added benefit of pushing livestock management in the direction of

more sustainable practices. By creating conditions that produce

healthier animals, these reforms should also lead to a decrease in

therapeutic uses of antibiotics.

 

 

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Letter to Bayer Corporation from UCS and 9 other organizations

October 31, 2000

 

Helge H. Wehmeier, President and CEO

The Bayer Corporation

100 Bayer Road

Pittsburgh, PA 15205-9741

Via fax -- 412-778-4431

 

Dear Mr. Wehmeier:

 

The undersigned health, consumer, and other public-interest groups urge

you to voluntarily withdraw Baytril ®, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic for

use in poultry, from the market. As you know, on October 31, 2000, the

FDA took the first step in banning fluoroquinolones for use in poultry

by publishing a Notice of Opportunity for Hearing. Bayer has 30 days to

determine whether to request a hearing; if Bayer does not, the

withdrawal automatically takes effect.

 

FDA's Notice sets forth detailed reasons for concern about continued use

of fluoroquinolones in poultry, including the recent dramatic rise in

fluoroquinolone resistance among humans. Although fluoroquinolones were

approved for human use in 1986, resistance in foodborne bacteria such as

Campylobacter and Salmonella remained extremely low until shortly after

their use in poultry began in late 1995. As of 1998, human resistance

levels were at 13.6%; as of 1999, at 17.6%. The trend is both

unmistakable and unacceptable.

 

These trends are particularly troubling given the importance of

fluoroquinolones in human medicine. Fluoroquinolones are the treatment

of choice for some human intestinal illnesses, most particularly food

poisoning caused by Campylobacter bacteria. Campylobacter is the most

common cause of foodborne illness in the U.S. and can be

life-threatening for persons with weakened immune systems such as the

elderly, chemotherapy patients, and transplant patients.

Fluoroquinolones are also important in treating other illnesses,

including urinary tract infections, bone and joint infections, and some

types of pneumonia.

 

The only other manufacturer of fluoroquinolones for poultry, Abbott

Laboratories, has already requested withdrawal of approval for its

product. We urge Bayer to do likewise without delay.

 

Very truly yours,

 

 

 

 

Mohammad N. Akhter, MD, MPH

Executive Director, American Public Health Association

 

Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest

 

The Rev. Jim Lewis

President, Delmarva Poultry Justice Alliance

 

Fred Krupp

Executive Director, Environmental Defense

 

Richard Wood

Executive Director, Food Animal Concerns Trust

 

Alice Slater

President, Global Resources Action Center for the Environment

 

Mark Ritchie

Executive Director, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

 

Brother David Andrews, CSC

Executive Director, The National Catholic Rural Life Conference

 

Robert K. Musil, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility

 

Margaret Mellon, Ph.D., Food and Environment Program Director, Union of

Concerned Scientists

 

 

 

 

Please direct your response to Karen Florini, Senior Attorney,

Environmental Defense, 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20009,

who will distribute it to other cosigners.

_________________

 

 

 

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 7:16 pm Post subject: Antibiotic Resistance From Down

On The Chicken Farm

 

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Antibiotic Resistance From Down On The Chicken Farm JoAnn Guest

Mar 06, 2005 18:18 PST

 

Antibiotic Resistance From Down On The Chicken Farm

Linda Bren / FDA Consumer Magazine Jan/Feb01

 

http://www.mindfully.org/Health/Antibiotic-Chicken-FDAJanb01.htm

 

Chicken wings and turkey drumsticks are almost as ingrained in American

culture as apple pie and baseball. But the lip-smackin', finger-lickin'

good taste is less palatable when the poultry makes people sick. Even

harder to swallow are germs that don't respond to drugs that may be

prescribed to fight the sickness.

 

New evidence that drugs used in poultry can cause antibiotic-resistant

infections in consumers spurred the Food and Drug Administration's

Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to take action. On October 31, CVM

proposed to withdraw the approval of an antibacterial, Baytril

(enrofloxacin), used to treat disease in chickens and turkeys. CVM

approved Baytril in 1996. Made by the Bayer Corporation of Shawnee

Mission, Kan., Baytril belongs to a class of antibacterials called

fluoroquinolones, which have been used in humans since 1986.

 

Shortly prior to CVM's announcement, Abbott Laboratories of North

Chicago, Ill., requested withdrawal of the approvals for its poultry

fluoroquinolone products. This means that Abbott will voluntarily remove

these products, trade name SaraFlox, from the market.

 

The Bayer Corporation has requested a hearing to present safety data to

try to keep Baytril on the market. The company must submit all data and

analysis to support consideration for a hearing by January 2, 2001.

 

Poultry growers use fluoroquinolone drugs to keep chickens and turkeys

from dying from Escherichia coli (E. coli) infection, a disease that

they could pick up from their own droppings. But the size of flocks

precludes testing and treating individual chickens--so when a

veterinarian diagnoses an infected bird, the farmers treat the whole

flock by adding the drug to its drinking water. While the drug may cure

the E. coli bacteria in the poultry, another kind of

bacteria--Campylobacter--may build up resistance to these drugs. And

that's the root of the problem.

 

People who consume chicken or turkey contaminated with

fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter are at risk of becoming infected

with a bacteria that current drugs can't easily kill. Campylobacter is

the most common bacterial cause of diarrheal illness in the United

States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's estimated to affect over 2 million persons every year, or 1 percent

of the population.

 

Commonly found in chickens, Campylobacter doesn't make the birds sick.

But humans who eat the bacteria-contaminated birds may develop fever,

diarrhea, and abdominal cramps. In people with weakened immune systems,

Campylobacter can be life-threatening. Eating undercooked chicken or

turkey, or other food that has been contaminated from contact with raw

poultry, is a frequent source of Campylobacter infection. Not washing

utensils, countertops, cutting boards, sponges, or hands after coming

into contact with raw poultry can also spread the bacteria and cause

infection. People infected with Campylobacter may be prescribed a

fluoroquinolone--which may or may not work.

 

But the damage doesn't stop there. " Cross-resistance occurs throughout

this class of drugs, " says Stephen F. Sundlof, DVM, PhD, director of

CVM. " So resistance to one fluoroquinolone can compromise the

effectiveness of all fluoroquinolone drugs. "

 

Considered one of the most valuable drug classes available to treat

human infections, fluoroquinolones are used to treat a wide range of

diseases, including the gastrointestinal illness caused by Campylobacter

infection.

 

The use of antibiotics in food animals has been a human health concern

since the 1970s when FDA first called for restrictions on antibiotics

used in animal feed. Prior to 1995, when fluoroquinolones were first

approved to treat poultry, very few fluoroquinolone-resistant

Campylobacter were found in people with foodborne diseases in the United

States. After the approval, however, many more fluoroquinolone-resistant

bacteria were found in humans and in poultry from slaughter plants and

retail stores.

 

The data to support these findings came from a study by the Minnesota

Department of Health and a computerized system called NARMS--the

National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System. Created in 1996 as

a joint effort by CVM, CDC, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture,

NARMS monitors human and animal resistance to 17 antimicrobials.

Antimicrobials include antibacterials, antivirals, antifungals, and

antiparasitics.

 

Data provided by NARMS and other sources were used to develop a risk

assessment. This assessment, along with other data, supported CVM's

decision to propose the withdrawal of approval of Baytril for use in

poultry. The risk assessment quantified, for the first time, the

magnitude of the dangers to humans eating chicken contaminated with

fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter. It showed that the number of

people infected with fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter from eating

chicken rose from an estimated 8,782 in 1998 to 11,477 in 1999.

 

The risk assessment, completed in October, is only one action CVM has

taken to address the antimicrobial resistance problem over the years,

says Sundlof. Another part of CVM's proactive program is its proposal to

take a stronger regulatory approach when approving new antimicrobial

drugs for use in food animals. A " framework document " lays out a plan

for evaluating the safety of these drugs based on their importance to

human health. If the plan is implemented, the drugs of highest

importance--those used to treat a serious or life-threatening disease in

humans for which there is no effective alternative treatment--would be

subject to the strictest criteria for approval for animal use. Among the

studies that would be required by drug sponsors are tests to show their

product's potential to induce antibiotic resistance.

 

CVM has invited input from outside experts on the principles in the

framework document. Two public meetings have been held in the past year

and a half, and a third is scheduled for January 23-24 to discuss

establishing resistance thresholds in food-producing animals. The

workshop will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the DoubleTree

Hotel, 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. For more details on the

meeting and the framework document, see the CVM Home Page at

www.fda.gov/cvm/.

 

" FDA and CVM will continue to work to put in place a regulatory system

that addresses the dangers of antimicrobial resistance and offers better

protection to public health, " says Sundlof. " At the same time, CVM will

strive to assure the safe use of antimicrobial drugs in food-producing

animals. "

source: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2001/101_chic.html