12.04.2012

FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will ask livestock producers, drug companies and veterinarians to curb the use of antibiotics to promote growth in food-producing animals — a widespread practice that has been shown to create drug resistance in microbes.

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria or other microbes develop the ability to resist the effects of a drug. Once this occurs, a drug may no longer be as effective in treating various illnesses or infections. Because it is well established that all uses of antimicrobial drugs, in both humans and animals, contribute to the development of antimicrobial resistance, it is important to use these drugs only when medically necessary. Based on a consideration of relevant reports and scientific data, FDA is proposing a voluntary initiative to phase in certain changes to how medically important antimicrobial drugs are labeled and used in food-producing animals. FDA is taking this action to help preserve the effectiveness of medically important antimicrobials for treating disease in humans.
The FDA’s recommendations included guidelines to help the industry phase out the antibiotics for “production use” and transfer oversight of the drugs for therapeutic work to veterinarians (that is, require a prescription).  The FDA also offered draft guidance to drug companies for labeling their products to require a prescription and draft regulations to allow veterinarians to authorize the use of “certain drugs” in feed.

 

Guidance for Industry #209

Guidance for Industry #213