News

Animal Ag Alliance says Pew concerns covered

The Animal Agriculture Alliance takes issue with a report by the Pew Charitable Trust that calls for even more regulation on animal antibiotic use. The Pew report says the FDA should change drug labels to comply with FDA’s judicious use principles.

Alliance communications director Hannah Thompson tells Brownfield the industry is already engaged in the judicious use of antibiotics in food animals and producers are working to comply with new FDA regulations that go into effect in January, “What the Pew report is implying and the issues that they’re raising, which is that antibiotics might be used inappropriately and for an inappropriate duration, the FDA policy and guidance is already addressing that by giving that responsibility to the veterinarian.”

The Pew report says livestock producers should reduce the duration of animal antibiotics to address concerns about antibiotic resistance in humans.

Thompson says vets are the experts and will have the responsibility to make prescriptions and a veterinary feed directive (VFD) that is appropriate to each livestock operation, “So, the Animal Ag Alliance, on behalf of all of our members, is really stating that we need to allow the guidance as it stands to come into place and give that responsibility to the veterinarian and it’s going to take care of those concerns.”

Thompson points out that the Pew Trust used Sales Data in its report. She says no amount of sales data will show whether antibiotics were used appropriately or inappropriately – and the Pew report itself says that “underuse” can be just as much of an issue as overuse.