Groups charge US FDA over antibiotic use in animals
In a lawsuit that was filed against the US Food and Drug Administration, the Natural Resources Defence Council claimed that FDA has not sufficiently addressed the use of antibiotics in animal production.
The suit filed by NRDC, the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Public Citizen, and Union of Concerned Scientists, alleges that there is "growing evidence that the spread of bacteria immune to antibiotics around the world has clear links to the overuse of antibiotics in the food industry," according to a news release issued by NRDC. However, no scientific studies backing the allegation were cited in the news release.
"The FDA needs to put the American people first by ensuring that antibiotics continue to serve their primary purpose - saving human lives by combating disease," said Peter Lehner, NRDC executive director. "The coalition suit would compel FDA to take action on the agency's own safety findings, withdrawing approval for most non-therapeutic uses of penicillin and tetracyclines in animal feed," according to the release.
"We can't let these precious medicines be wasted so we can save literally a few pennies per pig," said Richard Wood, FACT executive director. The suit would also compel the FDA to respond to the citizen petitions filed by several of the plaintiffs in 1999 and 2005.
The National Pork Producers Council reacted swiftly to the legal action. "The lawsuit filed against FDA is spurious," said NPPC President Doug Wolf in a statement released following the law suit announcement. Wolf is a pork producer from Lancaster, Wis. "Anti-modern livestock production groups are trying to compel FDA to ban antibiotics used to prevent animals from getting sick because those groups have a belief - not scientific evidence - that such FDA-approved animal health products are causing antibiotic resistance in people. Numerous peer-reviewed risk assessments show that the risk to public health from animal uses of antibiotics is negligible."
