Legislative activities

Regulatory activities

State legislative resources

About AVMAPAC

Government
Action Center

Congressional fellowships

Student externships

= AVMA/SAVMA  Members Only

Some files on this page require Adobe Reader software. Click on the image above to download it for free from the Adobe site.

• The purpose of this Act is purportedly to preserve the effectiveness of medically important antibiotics used in the treatment of human and animal diseases by phasing out use of certain antibiotics for nontherapeutic purposes in food-producing animals.
• Medically important antibiotics are any kind of penicillin, tetracycline, macrolide, lincosamide, streptogramin, aminoglycoside, or sulfonamide; or any other drug or derivative of a drug that is used in humans or intended for use in humans to treat or prevent disease or infection caused by microorganisms.
• The term 'nontherapeutic use', with respect to a medically important antibiotic, means any use of the drug as a feed or water additive for an animal in the absence of any clinical sign of disease in the animal for growth promotion, feed efficiency, weight gain, routine disease prevention, or other routine purpose.

• The process for the evaluation of food animal antimicrobials (commonly called antibiotics) is at least as stringent, and often more so, than the approval process for human antibiotics. Each food animal antibiotic undergoes an assessment for human, environmental and animal safety as a part of the evaluation review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• There are several public and private monitoring and surveillance systems that monitor for the emergence of antibiotic resistance:
  • The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) is a multi-agency program which includes monitoring for resistant bacteria in retail meats by the FDA, monitoring for resistant food-borne pathogens in humans by the CDC, and monitoring for resistant bacteria in animals on farms and animal products in slaughter and processing facilities by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
  • The Collaboration on Animal Health and Food Safety Epidemiology (CAHFSE) is a program conducted by USDA that collects information on disease status, associated antibiotic use, and resistance of bacteria in farm animals.
  • The SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program is the most comprehensive human antibiotic resistance surveillance program in the world.
• The proposed legislation seeks to eliminate the non-therauptic use of antibiotic drugs considered important for human health. The intent of the legislation is to decrease the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans. As legislation concerning the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture is considered by Congress, it is imperative that decisions be made based upon the science supporting the issue.