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Senate panel wants quick FDA action on drug-resistant diseases
The agriculture spending bill that Senate appropriators unanimously approved Wednesday directs regulators to hurry up with their recommendations for limiting the use of antibiotics in farm animals.
The Food and Drug Administration last year issued draft guidance recommending that farmers stop using antibiotics to produce more and bigger poultry and livestock after concluding that the practice has contributed to an increase in drug resistance that "poses a serious public health threat." Farming and drug industry interests oppose restrictions, however, and a year later the controversial voluntary guidance is still in the works.
"The FDA has not yet identified a timeframe for finalizing and implementing this guidance or for taking other proposed steps to address antimicrobial resistance," the spending bill says. "Therefore, the Committee directs the FDA to set a timeline for when (the guidance) and any implementing guidance will be finalized. … The Committee also recommends that FDA examine medically important antimicrobial drugs currently approved for use in food-producing animals and take steps to assure that such products are aligned with current safety standards."
"We applaud the Senate for making this a priority," she said via e-mail. "The recent drug-resistant Salmonella outbreak that sickened 110 people and killed one shows that FDA action on antibiotics in food animal production is long overdue."
Five lawmakers — Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) — have signed on legislation to ban farmers from using seven classes of antibiotics critical for human health in food production except to treat sick animals. Such efforts face a tougher time in the Republican-controlled House, however, where health appropriations chairman Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) is leading the charge against tougher restrictions.
