A coalition of 65 health, environmental, consumer, and animal welfare groups has filed a petition with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to end the routine use of antibiotics in food-producing animals.

The citizen’s petition, sent last week to the FDA, calls on the agency to withdraw approval of medically important antibiotics that are administered in animal feed and water when not associated with a diagnosed illness. The target of the petition is use of antibiotics for disease prevention and “maintenance of growth” in poultry, swine, dairy cattle, and beef cattle—uses the groups argue are unnecessary and contribute to the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that drug-resistant bacteria contribute to about 35,000 deaths and 2.8 million infections in the United States each year. Many of the antibiotics used in food-producing animals are also used in people.

An estimated 34 million pounds of antibiotics are used in livestock water and feed in the United States each year, according to the petition. While antibiotics are necessary for treating animals that have diagnosed bacterial infections, antibiotic stewardship advocates have long argued that the FDA should do more to prevent overuse of the drugs in food-animal production. The agency has banned the use of antibiotics for growth promotion but still allows use for disease prevention in otherwise healthy animals.

Routine antibiotic use ‘fueling a resistance crisis’

The petition argues that, under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA is obligated to withdraw approval for disease prevention uses and long-duration administration of medically important antibiotics in animals because those uses may pose a harm to human and animal health.

“Antibiotics are still being used in livestock as a matter of routine rather than to treat diagnosed diseases—fueling a resistance crisis that puts our health at risk,” Consumer Reports senior scientist Michael Hansen, PhD, said in a press release. “The FDA has both the tools and the obligation to act.”

The groups also want the FDA to mandate collection of species- and sector-specific antibiotic use data from US farms, and to set reduction targets for antibiotic use by livestock sector.

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