Citing Drug Resistance, U.S. Restricts More Antibiotics for Livestock

[MH1]

Good news.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/health/policy/fda-restricts-use-of-antibiotics-in-livestock.html

Citing Drug Resistance, U.S. Restricts More Antibiotics for Livestock
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: January 4, 2012

WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators announced on Wednesday that farmers and ranchers must restrict their use of a critical class of antibiotics in cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys because such practices may have contributed to the growing threat in people of bacterial infections that are resistant to treatment.

The medicines are known as cephalosporins and include brands like Cefzil and Keflex. They are among the most common antibiotics prescribed to treat pneumonia, strep throat, and skin and urinary tract infections. Surgeons also often use them before surgery, and they are particularly popular among pediatricians.

The drugs’ use in agriculture has, according to many microbiologists, led to the development of bacteria that are resistant to their effects, a development that many doctors say has cost thousands of lives.

A decade ago, the F.D.A. banned indiscriminate agricultural uses of a powerful class of antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones, that includes the medicine Cipro. Wednesday’s announcement was another of the F.D.A.’s incremental steps.

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Cephalosporins are not used as widely in livestock as penicillin, since they require a prescription from veterinarians. But the drugs are routinely injected into broiler eggs and used in large doses to treat infections in cattle and other animals.

The new rule will restrict only some of these uses and is therefore a modest step that, while applauded by consumer advocates, led many to call for far tougher measures.

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more at link.

[NC_Nurse]

1. 'bout time. the FDA sucks. and the USDA. but I suppose this makes up for some of their industry

pandering.

too bad its too late to prevent a lot of the superbugs out there....

[drm604]

2. Way past due

and it falls short. Still, it's a step in the right direction.

[MH1]

3. Exactly. nt.