FDA urges less antibiotics in meat

Source: LA Times

The federal recommendation comes amid rising concern that the drugs in animals pose a health threat to humans.

Meat producers should use certain antibiotics only to assure 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 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loss of their effectiveness as antimicrobial therapies, poses a serious public health threat," the FDA said in a draft guidance statement.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fda-antibiotics-20100629,0,4918781.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fnation+%28L.A.+Times+-+National+News%29

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health information from the '80's. Now on to genetically modified grains, or reducing the depth of the excrement that our food animals live in.

I like my food as pure as possible, IDK about you.

Source: afp

AFP - US health authorities pressed farmers to give fewer antibiotics to livestock and poultry to reduce the risk of potentially harmful resistance to antimicrobial drugs.

Animals developing resistance to the drugs and the antibiotics' resulting loss of effectiveness "poses a serious public health threat," the US Food and Drug Administration warned as it issued guidance on the issue.

Yet the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine director Bernadette Dunham stressed the drugs could play a key role -- when used properly.

"Using medically important antimicrobial drugs as judiciously as possible is key to minimizing resistance development and preserving the effectiveness of these drugs as therapies for humans and animals," she said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20100629-us-presses-farmers-reduce-antibiotics-use

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"The draft guidance summarizes a number of published reports on antimicrobial resistance and states that the overall weight of evidence available to date supports the conclusion that using medically important antimicrobial drugs for production or growth enhancing purposes (i.e., non-therapeutic or subtherapeutic uses) in food-producing animals is not in the interest of protecting and promoting the public health.

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. These steps would help reduce overall use of medically important antimicrobial drugs, thereby reducing the pressure that generates antimicrobial resistance."

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm217464.htm

:wtf:

I'm sure the meat producers are going to heed their gentle suggestions! :sarcasm:

"Would you guys mind not injecting your meat with antibiotics?? Antibiotics are bad, mmmm-kay?"

I'm sure that appealing to the decency and reason of the meat producers is going to be very effective at changing things. :eyes: We should try similar tactics with oil companies and other evil industries. I'm sure they're all just waiting for us to ask nicely for them to stop fucking us over! We've just been too impolite about it in the past.

Jesus Tap-dancing Christ! Doesn't the FDA have the authority to FORCE meat producers to do this, or am I wrong?

:mad: