WASHINGTON, DC – Key proposals backed by U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to help reduce the negative health impacts of antibiotic use in animals will be going into effect as part of a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) action that will phase out the use of some antibiotics used to make food producing animals grow. 

Many meat producers regularly give antibiotics, which are often used to treat sick people, to fatten healthy livestock and poultry and make them grow faster.  However, a wide body of scientific evidence confirms that the overuse of antibiotics in the food animal industry is a key factor in the development of antibiotic resistance in humans, creating drug-resistant “superbugs” that can make infections more difficult and costly to treat.  The new FDA action calls on pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily stop labeling drugs as acceptable for use in animal production, which would make the use of antibiotics to promote animal growth illegal and require animal producers to secure a prescription from a veterinarian to give the drugs to sick animals.  Companies have 90 days to tell the FDA they will comply with the plan, and then they'll be given up to three years to transition away from antibiotic feed.

“I am pleased the FDA is finally beginning to take action to address this critical public health issue,” said Reed. “The guidance released today is a step in the right direction to protect the effectiveness of valuable lifesaving drugs and improve the safety of our food.”

For years, Reed, has been urging the FDA to strengthen voluntary reduction in the use of antibiotics in food animal production.  Reed is a cosponsor of the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act, which would help preserve the effectiveness of medically important antibiotics by restricting their use as additives in animal feed.  It would also require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to withdraw approval for nontherapeutic uses of antibiotics in food-producing animals two years after the enactment of this bill.

According to Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, over 70 percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are now intended for use in animal agriculture. 

Reed is also an original cosponsor of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act which would significantly improve the FDA's regulatory authority, including its ability to help prevent drug shortages and to partner with the private sector to develop new medications to treat life-threatening diseases that have become resistant to antibiotics.