Prevention Harms

Tackling Antibiotic Overuse

Social Issues – The Food and Drug Administration has been ordered by a federal court to “act on scientific knowledge that the overuse of antibiotics in food animals has contributed to the rise of antibiotic resistant infections in humans.” It’s a ruling that could have a significant long-term impact on the quality and safety of commercial farming in the country.

Until drug makers can find evidence that penicillin and tetracycline use in livestock does not have a negative impact on infections, the usage of these antibiotics should see a sharp decline in usage, being reserved largely for therapeutic uses. Evidence of the safety (or lack of impact) of the now-common, preventative usage of these antibiotics is unlikely to be found, according to many public health experts. In fact, the science “has only gotten stronger” for the case against this manner of antibiotic use, according to Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) attorney, Avinash Kar.

The federal ruling follows a lawsuit from the NRDC, regarding a study done over three decades ago by the FDA that found that feeding animals low doses of these antibiotics could eventually prove harmful to humans over time.

Read more at the Huffington Post.