July 1, 2011

World Coalition demands less antibiotics on farms

The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a forum for European and American consumer advocates, has approved a resolution calling on countries to ban the non-therapeutic use of farm animal antibiotics.

Scientists have expressed concern that the widespread use of antibiotics on farms is contributing to bacterial resistance to these drugs, which poses a threat to human health.

The proposal recommends that governments ban the use of growth-promoting antibiotics in animals, and severely limit therapeutic applications of these drugs. 
 

In 2006, the EU banned the use of most growth-promoting antibiotics in feed. Sweden banned the use of antimicrobials in feed without veterinary prescription in 1986, and Denmark outlawed all non-therapeutic antibiotics for food animals.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released draft guidelines on the judicious use of animal antibiotics that point to a definitive link between the use of these drugs and an increase in antibiotic resistance among pathogens that affect humans.

The document concludes that "The use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals should be limited to those uses that are considered necessary for assuring animal health."

However, no laws are currently in place in the US against the sub-therapeutic use of animal antibiotics.

In its resolution, TACD made several key policy recommendations regarding food animal antibiotic use, including banning the use of animal antibiotics for non-therapeutic purposes, funding national systems to monitor antimicrobial use in food-production animals, improving health and hygiene management on farms, and banning antimicrobials in crop/plant protection.