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The need for antibiotic stewardship

The National Institute for Animal Agriculture held its annual antibiotics symposium “Antibiotic Use and Resistance; Moving Forward Through Shared Stewardship.” Dr. Lonnie King, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University keynoted the conference, he says the main goal was to prepare agriculture for the FDA’s new guidance.  That is a three-year plan to voluntarily eliminate the use of certain antibiotics as growth promotants.  King says there were representatives from all areas of agriculture at the conference and they all believe they can do this but it is going to take an adjustment period.

“The 26 top pharmaceutical companies who produce antibiotics have all agreed that they will voluntarily comply with the FDA guidance. That means all of the producers will no longer have these antibiotics available.”  King stresses that is not all antibiotics, just those which are medically important antibiotics, those which are used to treat human infections and diseases.  Antibiotics will still be available for animals but only for therapeutic use and only through a veterinarian.  “What we want to make sure of is that in the future, when we need antibiotics to treat disease, whether in people or animals, that those antibiotics work.”

King says he has not seen any numbers as to the economic impact the loss of growth promotants will have on livestock production. He also notes that in European countries where antibiotic use has been reduced, “they did have a rebound of some diseases.”  He says we are just going to have to do a better job of disease prevention through management on the farm.  “In the long term, we are going to be better off both in animal health and in human health.”

Another factor in all of this is the fact we have not had any new antibiotics in the last 30 years. King says it is just not economically feasible for companies to develop one.  He says we are going to have to change the incentives to these companies, we’re going to have to do public-private partnerships or maybe tax incentives to make it economically feasible for them to spend the money.  “That’s been part of the issue and that is part of the conversation now.”

Dr. King talks about the effort: