Pingree supports legislation that cracks down on the use of drugs in feed
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Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said today she's glad the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is beginning to regulate the use of human antibiotics in animal feed, but says the rules need to be much tougher. Today the FDA proposed two new regulations that are aimed to limit the use of those drugs on farms.
"The use of antibiotics to fatten up animals on big factory farms has gotten out of hand and has become a threat to human health. The practice should be stopped and the rules the FDA are proposing today fall far short of that," Pingree said. "But at least it's a start and a recognition that this is a problem. The Obama Administration has a three-year plan to limit the use of antibiotics in animal feed and I hope this is the first step in that effort."
Pingree is a cosponsor of a bill that would crack down on the use of the drugs for healthy animals while still allowing for the treatment of sick animals. (Specifically, the bill would withdraw eight classes of antibiotics that are essential to human health from use on food-animal farms unless animals or herds are sick with disease, or unless drug companies can prove that their routine use does not harm human health.)
The use of antibiotics to stimulate rapid growth in animals and fight off diseases when they are kept in close quarters has increased dramatically. In 2011, farmers used nearly four times as much antibiotics in feed as doctors prescribed for humans. Scientists say the overuse of antibiotics is resulting in new superbugs in humans that don't respond to drug treatment, like the antibiotic resistant form of Salmonella that was found in chicken this fall and infected almost 400 people.
Some drugs that were originally developed to fight infections in people are now being marketed as promoting growth in farm animals. The regulations the FDA proposed today ask drug companies to voluntarily stop making that claim and require prescriptions from veterinarians.
Pingree, an organic farmer who raises vegetables and livestock on her farm in Maine, said she has concerns with the loopholes in the proposed regulations.
"Drug companies can just relabel their drugs and say they are for preventing illness in animals or choose not to comply with that requirement at all," Pingree said. "I'd like to see rules with more teeth but I'm hopeful that this is just the first step toward tougher regulation."
