FDA Looks into Limiting Antibiotics Use in Livestock

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the draft guidance entitled The Judicious Use of Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs in Food-Producing Animals. The draft guidance outlines FDA's current thinking on strategies to assure that antimicrobial drugs that are important for therapeutic use in humans are used judiciously in animal agriculture.

The document recommends phasing in measures that would limit medically important antimicrobial drugs to uses in food-producing animals that are considered necessary for assuring animal health and that include veterinary oversight or consultation.

While doing nothing to change the present oversight of antibiotics, the document is the first signal in years that the agency intends to rejoin the battle to crack down on agricultural uses of antibiotics that many infectious-disease experts attack.

FDA is soliciting public feedback to this draft guidance for the next 60 days. To view the draft guidance, go to www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/GuidanceComplianceEnforcement/GuidanceforIndustry/UCM216936.pdf.

Reprinted in part from American Meat Institute

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