New Food and Drug Administration guidance that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2017, will end the use of antibiotics important to human medicine to promote growth in animals or to improve feed efficiency, and require veterinary oversight for the use of medically important antibiotics in animal agriculture.
As revealed in the webinar, Dr. Steve Solomon and I share some of the same concerns and priorities, including most importantly that antibiotics must be used responsibly in both human and animal medicine. We covered the changes underway in how antibiotics are being used on farms, the risks, as well as “superbug” concerns and the broader global picture with regard to antibiotic resistance.
The United Nations General Assembly passed a declaration aiming to slow down the spread of bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. The U.S. is well underway in following the U.N.’s directive. Animal health companies are eliminating the use of antibiotics important to human medicine for the purpose of promoting growth in animals. In many cases, these antibiotics will only be available under a Veterinary Feed Directive, essentially a prescription from a veterinarian, starting the first of the year.