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Antibiotics For Treating Illness, Not For Food Production
Jessica Webb
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Earlier this year, U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter introduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009 (PAMTA). The bill, supported by the American Medical Association and the Union of Concerned Scientists, proposes that seven classes of antibiotics that are vital to human health be withdrawn from use on factory farms, unless animals are sick with a disease.
Human antibiotics are habitually used on factory farms to expedite animal growth and to counteract crowded and unsanitary living conditions. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, 50 million pounds of antibiotics have been used for farm animal production since PAMTA was initially introduced 2 years ago. Even more shocking, food animal production accounts for 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States. Non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animals meant to become food can contaminate the resulting product with antibiotics or drug-resistant bacteria.
Why all the hype about antibiotics? The more bacteria are exposed to them, the less effective they become, which leads to one daunting word: resistance. It is an unfortunate and probable consequence that is becoming all too real. The unnecessary, overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture has undoubtedly contributed to the rise in antibiotic-resistant infections that are not only costly, but also very difficult to treat. According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 90,000 people die each year of a hospital-acquired infectious disease. Of these individuals, an estimated 70 percent have infections that are resistant to at least one antibiotic drug. Those most vulnerable to resistance are children, the elderly and individuals with weak immune systems, such as those with illnesses like HIV/AIDS. Many of those under review to be revoked by PAMTA include the potentially life-saving antibiotics used to treat bacterial illness in people.
In July, the Obama administration announced its support of PAMTA. In his testimony to the House Rules Committee, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, stated “feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle — done to encourage rapid growth — should cease…[and] should not be considered judicious use." Sharfstein further stated, “ Eliminating these uses will not compromise the safety of food.”
In fact, it should increase food safety as studies conducted by the Antibiotic Resistance Project found brand name poultry products routinely carry at least one kind of disease causing bacteria. These pathogens often are resistant to one or more antibiotics. Meat raised without antibiotics tend to carry fewer drug-resistant bacteria.
Show your support for PAMTA by filling out a petition for community action.
For more information regarding antibiotic resistance and current legislation visit Save Antibiotics.
