McDonald’s needs to step up and follow through on their commitment to preserving antibiotics

MADELEINE KLEVEN, SAFE AND HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Antibiotic resistant superbugs threaten to dismantle our entire medical system and kill as many as 10 million people per year by 2050. A key driver of antibiotic resistance is the overuse of antibiotics in food-animal production, especially the overuse of antibiotics that are important to human medicine. In the United States, approximately two thirds of the medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. go to meat production. In cattle, the bulk of these are given in feed not to treat illness but to prevent problems caused by unhealthy feedlot diets and by the stress of shipping baby calves across the country to unhealthy crowded feedlots. This is unacceptable and needs to change. Food animals should be raised under healthy conditions so that farms and feedlots do not routinely use these lifesaving drugs. That is where McDonald’s and other food companies come in.

Feed Mills and Antibiotic Use Data

STEVE ROACH , SAFE AND HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM DIRECTOR, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Feed mills could be an important source of how antibiotics are used on farms. Sales of antibiotics for use in feed are the highest of all sales in the US, outstripping sales in human medicine. Existing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules require feed mills to keep records of the amount, reason for use, and the animals receiving them. The rules also require feed mills to make these records available to the agency for inspection and copying. What is lacking is a willingness by the FDA to actually go out and collect these records.

KAW calls on the USDA to make sure farms are not the source of the next pandemic

MADELEINE KLEVEN, Safe and Healthy Food PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

The majority of the most recent epidemic and/or pandemic illnesses which have plagued the globe, including COVID-19, Ebola, H1N1 swine flu, and SARS have emerged from animals. As experts have noted, identifying and combating both present and future pandemic threats requires a comprehensive surveillance system to monitor animal pathogens which have the potential to cause human disease.

The FDA Must Prioritize Public Health Over the Interests of the Animal Drug Industry

STEVE ROACH , SAFE AND HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM DIRECTOR & MADELEINE KLEVEN, PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

In 2003, the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA) was signed into law. It authorizes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collect fees from the animal drug industry in exchange for, “expediting the animal drug development process and the review of new and supplemental animal drug applications.” In short, the law directs the FDA to charge fees to the animal drug makers in order to speed up and streamline animal drug approvals and set targets for how quickly the FDA takes to review drugs. The program gives the drug makers significant power over the FDA because it requires the FDA to negotiate with the animal drug industry every five years on how the collected fees will be used, and the fees make up a large part of the FDA’s budget related to the regulation of animal drugs.

The FDA Should Control the Spread of Superbugs by Stopping the Overuse of Antibiotics on Farms

STEVE ROACH , FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM DIRECTOR, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

The overuse of antibiotics in food animals helps fuel the development and spread of antibiotic resistant superbugs. These superbugs kill someone every fifteen minutes in the United States and pose a huge threat to global public health.

The overuse of antibiotics is a large problem in the United States. By volume of sales almost two-thirds of medically important antibiotics - antibiotics that are used for treating both animal and human infections- in the U.S. are given to food animals. These drugs are often given as insurance against possible future diseases instead of being given for the treatment of diagnosed illnesses. This method represents antibiotic overuse because the amount of animals receiving drugs is much higher compared to the amount of animals that would receive drugs if farms waited for signs of disease before distributing antibiotics. If farmers can predict whether or not an animal will get sick, then they should be implementing practices to keep them healthy rather than preventatively giving them antibiotics. Food production animals require healthier homes and better food.

Federal Agencies Need to Step up and Address the Root Causes of Antibiotic Resistance

MADELEINE KLEVEN , FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

As the threat of antibiotic resistance (ABR) grows every day and millions of Americans suffer from infections caused by superbugs, the public is left questioning - what are federal agencies doing to protect our health? It is essential that federal agencies take action to support research on ABR. Currently, the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which funds a plethora of research across all agriculture-related scientific fields, including ABR, is missing the mark.

Antibiotic Sales for Food Animals Continue to Rise

STEVE ROACH , FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM DIRECTOR, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

FDA just released its annual report on sales of antibiotics for use in food producing animals. The big take away is that sales of medically important antibiotics continue to rise (3% between 2018 and 2019). This is dangerous because antibiotic overuse in animals leads to antibiotic resistant superbugs that cause difficult to treat infections in humans and animals. This is the second consecutive year that antibiotic sales have increased, following drops in 2016 and 2017. Prior to 2016, there were five years of increases in sales. In order to adequately contain the threat of superbugs we need additional drops in sales rather than increases.

The latest U.S. National Action Plan to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Fails to Address the Overuse of Antibiotics on Farms.

MADELEINE KLEVEN , FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

So far, the U.S. response to the deadly global pandemic of drug-resistant superbugs has been flawed and feeble. This is illustrated in a recent update to the National Action Plan (NAP) to combat ‘superbug’ bacteria which covers the years 2021 to 2025. The plan does not include actions needed to reduce the tremendous overuse of critical antibiotics on farms and feedlots. This overuse of antibiotics continues to drive development of resistance by placing selective pressure on bacteria and in turn favoring the emergence of deadly drug-resistant strains. Despite goals of the Federal Task Force on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to “improve antibiotic use and reporting” and “enhance efforts to slow the emergence and spread of resistance,” their National Action Plan and coordinated strategy falls extremely short.

FDA Needs to Keep Moving Forward with Steps to Address the Threat of Antibiotic Resistance

MADELEINE KLEVEN , FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted millions of lives throughout the nation and across the globe and has demonstrated the importance of effective healthcare settings and coordinated government action in the midst of a crisis. At a critical time such as this it is imperative we continue addressing all of the public health threats plaguing our society including antibiotic resistance.

The misuse and overuse of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine has contributed to the development and spread of antibiotic resistant organisms which kill at least 35,000 Americans and cause almost 3 million illnesses each year. More federal action is needed to keep the already high numbers of illnesses and deaths from going up. In order to make sure this action is taken, sixteen Keep Antibiotics Working members and colleague organization recently sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Hahn urging FDA to continue to move forward with efforts to protect the efficacy of existing antibiotics by strengthening and implementing the Center for Veterinary Medicine’s Five-Year Action Plan for Supporting Antimicrobial Stewardship in Veterinary Settings. However, key components of the plan need to be strengthened and implemented in order to promote more judicious use of antibiotics and mitigate the threat of AMR.

U.S. House Takes Important Step on Antibiotic Stewardship

DAVID WALLINGA, MD, NRDC, AND HARRY RHODES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST. NRDC HAS KINDLY ALLOWED US TO REPOST THIS ARTICLE FROM THE ORIGINAL ON THE NRDC BLOG.

Strong public health action, taken at the right time, saves lives. In mid-May, public health researchers at Columbia University looked at social distancing measures taken across the country from March 15 to May 3. Enacted only one week earlier, the researchers concluded, those measures could have prevented 700,000 or more additional cases of COVID-19 -- and 36,000 deaths.

Future pandemics await us, whether caused by another virus or antibiotic-resistant “superbug” bacteria. More infectious disease crises have never been matter of “if”, but “when”.

Experts for years have warned of a coming global crisis in antibiotic resistance. In truth, it is already here. Up to 162,000 people in the U.S. die of antibiotic-resistant infections each year – more than the current death toll from coronavirus. Recently, some in the House of Representatives have shown leadership by taking action to curb unnecessary antibiotic use – it’s well-known that overuse of these precious medicines is a key driver in the spread of resistance.

New Data: Animal vs. Human Antibiotic Use Remains Lopsided

DAVID WALLINGA, MD, AND AVINASH KAR, NRDC, HEALTHY PEOPLE & THRIVING COMMUNITIES PROGRAM. Eili Klein, Center on Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy. NRDC HAS KINDLY ALLOWED US TO REPOST THIS ARTICLE FROM THE ORIGINAL ON THE NRDC BLOG.

Tragically, our nation’s response to COVID-19 shows what happens when public health isn’t protected, science and scientists are not trusted, and the nation’s preparedness is not prioritized.

For decades, U.S. policymakers have been aware of the rising threat from infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria (aka superbugs). Superbugs already infect more than 2.8 million people each year in the United States, contributing to between 35,000 and 162,000 deaths.

And yet the failure of these same policymakers to take meaningful action to protect the public continues (as noted in NRDC’s blog, To Protect the Future, Protect Antibiotics). In the absence of such action, the rates of illness and death could continue to rise, eventually generating economic impacts that on a global scale might look similar to what we now are seeing with COVID-19.

The antibiotic resistance crisis is driven in large part by ongoing antibiotic misuse and overuse. Unnecessary antibiotic use, whether in hospitals or pharmacies, on farms or feedlots, contributes to the proliferation and spread of resistant bacteria and genes. That’s why the tracking and reporting of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use, wherever it occurs, is particularly important.

Antibiotic Use on Farm is Threatening Our Ability to Fight Pandemics Like COVID-19

MADELEINE KLEVEN , PROJECT ASSISTANT, FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM AT FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

In a matter of months the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered our global economy, trade, and most critically our health. Without a reliable vaccine and/or cure, we are left questioning which medications in our arsenal will be effective in not only treating the current organisms plaguing our society, but those to come. Antibiotics, which are rapidly becoming ineffective through overuse in medicine and agriculture, are some of our most prized tools in the fight against infectious disease. While antibiotics don’t work against viruses, they are critical in treating the bacterial co-infections which are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality associated with viral infections, including COVID-19.

Keep Antibiotics Working is staffed by Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT). Learn more at www.foodanimalconcernstrust.org.