News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) have announced a global campaign to control foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a highly contagious livestock disease that does not threaten humans but can be economically devastating.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today ordered that certain uses of cephalosporin antibiotics be prohibited in animals, a move aimed at preventing antibiotic resistance and preserving the drug's effectiveness for treating human diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has denied a pair of long-pending petitions from consumer and other groups to limit the use of several antibiotics in farm animals, saying a voluntary approach the agency proposed last year will lead to more "judicious use" of the drugs in agriculture.

(CIDRAP News) – Although no successful attacks on the US agriculture and food system have been reported in the past decade, the nation's efforts to defend the system came in for a barrage of criticism yesterday about a lack of coordination and various other shortcomings.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today proposed a new system to improve the tracing of diseased and at-risk livestock, aiming to replace a previous national animal identification program that met widespread opposition from livestock producers.

(CIDRAP News) – Animal health delegates meeting in Paris today declared that rinderpest, a highly contagious disease in cattle and other animals, is eradicated, marking the first time humans have snuffed out an animal disease in the wild.