FDA urges meat producers to reduce use of antibiotics

WASHINGTON – Meat producers should use certain antibiotics only to ensure animal health and stop using the drugs to increase production and promote growth, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.

The recommendation to cut back on the use of antimicrobial drugs comes amid rising concern that extensive use of them in animals contributes to antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria afflicting humans.

“The development of resistance to this important class of drugs, and the resulting loss of their effectiveness as antimicrobial therapies, poses a serious public health threat,” the FDA said in a draft guidance statement.

The FDA guidance applies to antibiotics deemed “medically important” because they also are useful in treating human illness and calls for meat producers to consult more closely with veterinarians about when to use drugs and which compounds to employ.

The FDA guidance upset both a leading meat industry group and a key nonprofit science organization calling for sharper restrictions on the use of antibiotics.

The National Pork Producers Council said the FDA guidance is overly burdensome and would rob the industry of drugs important to the health of animals.

The council said in a statement that “there is no scientific study linking antibiotic food use in food animal production with antibiotic resistance.”

Margaret Mellon, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, called that assertion “patently untrue. There is a mountain of studies linking the use of antibiotics in animals to the evolution of resistant pathogens that cause human disease.”

Mellon chided the FDA for moving tentatively.