FDA Releases Draft Guidance on Antibiotic Duration Limits in Food Animals

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today published draft guidance for defining appropriate duration of use in antibiotics used in the feed of food-producing animals.

The guidance aims to address an issue that critics say the FDA has neglected in its efforts to promote more judicious use of medically important antibiotics in livestock and poultry. Roughly one-third of medically important antibiotics approved for use in food-producing animals have no duration limit, meaning farmers can use those antibiotics in animal feed for extended periods of time to prevent disease—a practice critics say compensates for poor living conditions that promote disease in herds and flocks.

Advocates for more robust antibiotic stewardship in US meat production say the overuse of medically important antibiotics on US farms promotes antibiotic resistance and threatens the effectiveness of antibiotics that are critical for human and veterinary medicine. Some groups have called for the FDA to limit the duration of use for medically important antibiotics to 21 days.

In a 5-year action plan released in 2018, the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine said that establishing appropriate duration limits would be one of its priorities.

Source: umn.edu

Photo Credit: istock-deyanarobova