Experts
call for limiting
antibiotic use in food animals.
By
Steve Mitchel l/
Medical Correspondent
A group of antibiotic experts called for the government and industry to take
steps to curtail the use of certain antibiotics in farm animals because
the practice could have deadly consequences for humans.
One of the main problems is certain antibiotics
are used to promote growth in chickens, cows and other food-producing
animals, which can lead to strains of bacteria resistant to
the antibiotics states, Stuart Levy, president of the Alliance
for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.
Many of these bacteria can then infect people
and cause fatal illnesses if antibiotics are no longer effective
against them, added Levy, who is also director of the center
for adaptation genetics and drug resistance at Tufts University
School of Medicine in Medford, Mass.
The increase in bacteria resistant to antibiotics
has been a growing problem over the past several years. The
main bacteria of concern are salmonella, campylobacter and
E. coli. The World Health Organization calculates each year
approximately 14,000 Americans die due to drug-resistant infections.
The U.S. government is also concerned about the problem and
both the FDA and the Senate are taking steps to curtail antibiotic
use in farm animals.
The alliance, which held a news conference to
discuss the issue and also published a report in the journal
Clinical Infectious Diseases, consists of scientists and physicians
from around the world who are involved in studying antibiotic
resistance.
Their recommendations call for discontinuing
the use of antibiotics for growth promotion purposes. "It's
an out-of-date, no longer acceptable practice," Levy said,
noting the European Union has banned it. Although inappropriate
use of antibiotics in humans leads to the development of resistance,
Levy said, "I could argue that animal use is more pervasive
because of the resistant bacteria leaching into the environment."
Resistant bacteria and the antibiotics are excreted
from the animals and leach into soil and water, he said. Two
classes of antibiotics are of major concern -- fluoroquinolones,
including the anthrax drug Cipro, and cephalosporins.
Drugs in these classes "may be the last resort
for particular diseases" and as such "should be given extra
special attention," Levy said. There may be cases where veterinarians
or farmers have to use fluoroquinolones or cephalosporins but "they
should not be used unless there's no other option," he said.
Levy noted poultry producers Tyson and Purdue
have voluntarily cut down on their use of fluoroquinolones
and McDonald's and other fast food chains have stopped buying
chickens from producers who use the antibiotics.
"We definitely consider this a problem," Linda
Tollefson, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary
Medicine, told UPI, noting the agency has proposed a ban on
the use of fluoroquinolones in chickens. "Resistance to these
antibiotics has developed and it is affecting humans," she
said.
However, it may take a year or longer before
the ban goes into effect, Tollefson said, because it is currently
being challenged by Bayer, which makes the fluoroquinolone
Baytril for poultry. Baytril is the same antibiotic used in
humans under the name Cipro.
Kennedy, D-Mass., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., "takes
immediate action to implement the decision of FDA to withdraw
these drugs from our food supply," the senators said in a release.
The legisation, The Preservation of Antibiotics for Human Treatment
Act, will also "protect the health of Americans by phasing
out the non-therapeutic use in livestock of medically important
antibiotics, unless their manufacturers can show that they
pose no danger to the public health." The senators noted the
act would "not restrict use of antibiotics to treat sick animals
or to treat pets and other animals not used for food."
Other antibiotics the FDA is concerned about
include virginiamycin, an antibiotic used to treat a type of
bacterial infection called vancomycin-resistant enterococci,
which can be fatal in humans, Tollefson said. In animals, virginiamycin
is used for growth promotion. Other growth-promoting antibiotics
that can lead to bacterial resisistance include penicillin,
tetracycline, streptomycin and erythromycin, all of which are
commonly used to treat infections in humans.
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