Health Advocates Sue FDA Over Antibiotics in Livestock

by Kate Gibson, meatingplace.com

Acoalition of health advocacy groups has sued the Food & Drug Administration and its Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) over the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, saying misuse of the medicines is a growing and deadly public health crisis.

Organizations including the National Resources Defense Council, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and Earthjustice filed suit to force the FDA to phase out the practice of administering antibiotics “en masse” to food-producing animals.

The use of medically important antibiotics for disease prevention in livestock and poultry contributes to the “rise and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” which advocates contend kills 35,000 and sickens more than 2.8 million people in the U.S. each year.

“The FDA does not comment on possible, pending or ongoing litigation,” a spokesperson for the agency told Meatingplace in an email.

Many of the same public health and consumer groups in 2016 petitioned the FDA to ban the use of antibiotics in healthy animals. The FDA denied the request five years later. ▫