Health - FDA bans some – but not all – farmyard antibiotics

The US Food and Drug Administration has restricted the farmyard use of antibiotics (Image: Gary Fandel/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

PREVENTION is not always better than cure. The US Food and Drug Administration has finally moved to restrict the farmyard use of antibiotics to prevent livestock illness over concerns that they may generate antibiotic-resistant superbugs. But the announcement covers such a small subset of drugs that campaigners fear the superbug threat will remain.

The FDA's apparently encouraging announcement last week will lead to severe restrictions on the farmyard use of cephalosporin antibiotics. But campaigners claim that these antibiotics account for only 0.2 per cent of antibiotic use on farms, and have accused the FDA of quietly withdrawing proposals dating from 1977 to tackle the wider use of tetracycline and penicillin antibiotics.

"Numerous organisations have recognised that use of antibiotics in agriculture poses risks to human health," says Avinash Kar, a San Francisco-based lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which initiated legal action last year to try to force the FDA to phase out the growth promoters. Europe did so a decade ago. "The cephalosporin announcement is a small step in the right direction, but it's very far from the finishing line."

The FDA says it revoked the 1977 proposals to focus on voluntary reforms within the industry. "Our action should not be interpreted as a sign that the FDA no longer has safety concerns about the use of medically important antibiotics in [livestock]," said an FDA spokeswoman.

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