Americans to U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Preserve Life-Saving Medicines; Reduce Antibiotic Use in Food Animal Production

On Thursday a broad coalition of organizations hand-delivered the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) more than 180,000 letters responding to
the agency's request for comments on rules governing the use of
antibiotics on industrial farms. By the tens of thousands, American
citizens have sent the FDA a clear message: antibiotics are a vital
foundation of public health in the United States; overuse and misuse has
created a threatening crisis of antibiotic resistance; and it is time
for the federal government to ensure strict veterinary oversight and
force the food animal industry to curtail the routine use of
antibiotics.

The letters were collected by a coalition of organizations committed
to saving antibiotics as pillars of public health in the United States.
The groups include: Center for Food Safety; Center for Science in the
Public Interest; CREDO Action; FamilyFarmed.org; Farm Aid; Food &
Water Watch; Food Democracy Now!; The Humane Society of the United
States; Organic Consumers Association; and Union of Concerned
Scientists.

The correspondence from citizens responded to requests by FDA for
comments on two recent actions related to oversight and control of
antibiotic use in food animal production. In March, the FDA announced
its intention to alter its Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) guidelines,
which govern the role and procedures veterinarians must follow with
regard to prescribing antibiotic use in animal agriculture. In June, the
agency issued draft guidance calling on the food animal industry to
voluntarily curtail the non-judicious use of antibiotics on industrial
farms, which threatens human health.

Reflecting the view of leading scientific and health experts, the
citizen comments express concern that the planned revisions to VFD
guidelines could weaken veterinary oversight and controls on antibiotic
use on industrial farms and that the FDA guidance on non-judicious use
does not sufficiently curtail the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in
animals that are not sick.

Here are examples of comments sent to FDA:

• "My healthy and gorgeous dream boy of a son, Simon, died within 16
  hours of his first symptoms. The cause: antibiotic resistance. Simon
  contracted an antibiotic resistant bacterium, MRSA (methicillin
  resistant Staphylococcus aureus). His infection could
  have been prevented years ago when bacteria actually succumbed to antibiotics."
• "Take this opportunity to protect our food supply, our population,
  and the future of medicine with a meaningful regulation that helps to
  solve a dangerous current situation."
• "Antibiotics in agriculture should be used under direct supervision of a veterinarian on individual animals."
• "I am an infectious disease specialist, and well aware of the
  progressively increasing problem of resistant bacteria, now not only a
  problem in hospitalized patients, but in many individuals acquiring hard
  to treat infections in the community. Scientific research has
  established that the widespread non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in
  the raising of food animals, has contributed greatly to this problem. I
  strongly support new regulations to ban the use of antibiotics in feed,
  and restriction of antibiotics to treatment for infection, carried out
  by licensed veterinarians."

Together, the coalition of organizations is calling on FDA to heed
the overwhelming scientific evidence and outpouring of citizen concern
by (1) strengthening the agency's VFD guidelines and (2) making
mandatory, rather than voluntary, its June guidance to ensure that
antibiotics only be used under veterinary supervision to treat sick
animals, thus protecting human health.

News Media Contacts

Center for Food Safety: Paige Tomaselli, staff attorney, 619.339.3180, ptomaselli@icta.org

Center for Science in the Public Interest: Jeff Cronin, director of communications, 202.777.8370, jcronin@cspi.org  

CREDO Action: Adam Klaus, campaign manager, 415.369.2047, aklaus@credomobile.com

FamilyFarmed.org: Jim Slama, founder and president, 708.763.9920, jimslama@familyfarmed.org

Farm Aid: Hilde Steffey, program director, 617.354.2922, hilde@farmaid.org

Food & Water Watch: Darcey Rakestraw, communications director, 202.683.2467, drakestraw@fwwatch.org

Food Democracy Now! Dave Murphy, founder and director, 917.968.7369, dave@fooddemocracynow.org

The Humane Society of United States: Jordan Crump, public information officer, 240.654.2964, jcrump@humanesociety.org

Organic Consumers Association: Ronnie Cummins, national director, 218.349.3836 ronnie@organicconsumers.org

Union of Concerned Scientists: Brise Tencer, Washington representative, Food and Environment Program, 202.378.0606, btencer@ucsusa.org