New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has a bill pending in the House Rules Committee that would restrict antibiotic use in food animals. 
The Obama Administration is currently stalling the bill in committee. This is the same administration that publicly stated last summer that it would support this bill. The Obama Administration previously had condemned the practice of feeding antibiotics to cattle, hogs, and poultry. Rep. Slaughter speaks from experience on this pending legislation. Rep. Slaughter is the only microbiologist in Congress. Scientists and doctors who fear that the overuse of these drugs makes them less effective in fighting bacteria in humans and animals join her. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that as much as 70 percent of the antibiotics used in the United States are given to healthy animals. Conventional farmers and ranchers routinely feed antibiotics to their herd to help the animals use their food more efficiently and bulk up faster. They say the medication also helps ward off pathogens that could sicken or kill their livestock. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is concerned with the giving of antibiotics to food animals, ”We’re looking at ways to phase out the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and food efficiency in livestock,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who is concerned that giving anti-microbials to animals when they are not sick is inappropriate – and even worse, contributes to more drug-resistant infections in people. Sharfstein is also pushing for veterinarians to oversee antibiotic use on animals. Currently, livestock feeds mixed with antibiotics such as Tylosin, a macrolide; and Chlortetracycline are sold over the counter. The deputy commissioner recently submitted his written position to the House Rules Committee on the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. According to Rep. Slaughter one of the reason meat and poultry producers’ use them is because they house their animals in poor living conditions. The use of antibiotics in these animals is essential to keeping them healthy who live in close proximity to one another. The legislation could drastically change farm practices in this country. Many consumers already have turned to antibiotic-free meat and poultry because they want products that have been raised naturally and out of an industrial farm setting. We need the Obama Administration to be that catalyst for change he so promised us a year ago. Support the Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act – call your congressman.
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