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AHI says Slaughter exaggerates antibiotics in feed

The Animal Health Institute says Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s letter to the Food and Drug Administration sounding an alarm about antibiotic use in animal feed is’ much ado about nothing.’

Ron Phillips, vice president of public and legislative affairs at the Animal Health Institute says, “She is claiming that the amount used in feed is driving antibiotic resistance in humans and we just have reams and reams of studies that say that’s not the case. ” The AHI is made up of member animal medicine companies.  Phillips says Slaughter’s concerns over the bulk of antibiotics given to animals through feed exaggerate the data.

“More importantly are the risk assessments that have been done over the past decade that show that using antibiotics to keep food animals healthy is a small risk to humans,” says Phillips, “And in fact, there may be benefits in terms of food safety. ”

Phillips says the Animal Health Institute began voluntarily collecting antibiotic data from companies on the amount sold – back in 1999.  In 2008, he said Congress chose to require that information be made public.  He says that FDA summary – showing 74 percent of antibiotics given to farm animals sold fur use via feed – was released last fall.

 “The risk of letting legislators and not scientific regulators make decisions about these uses, brings in unintended consequences  and we just simply don’t want that to happen,” he says.

Among her claims, Congresswoman Slaughter says as farmers “feed antibiotics to animals to keep them healthy, they are making our families sicker by spreading these deadly strains of (antibiotic resistant) bacteria.”

She claims studies show inconsistent dosing in animals contributes to that resistance.  

Philips says administering medicine to animals through feed is highly regulated and all of the issues she’s raised are speculative and are studied as part of the approval process.