Gov. Larry Hogan stood aside and let a Maryland law take effect without his signature that will bar use of medically important antibiotics to promote weight gain among cattle, hogs and poultry. The Maryland law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2018, the same implementation date as a similar law enacted in 2015 in California, the only other state to control antibiotic use with the goal of preserving the effectiveness of the drugs to fight disease in humans.
To a great extent, the laws mirror FDA regulations that took effect at the start of this year, which say the antimicrobials should be used only to prevent or treat disease and must be prescribed by a veterinarian. Reuters cited the environmental group U.S. PIRG as saying the two state laws are more restrictive than FDA because they reserve antibiotic use solely for treatment of sick animals or to control an outbreak of disease while barring use of them for routine disease prevention.
“Violations of the law may result in an administrative penalty not exceeding $2,000,” said the Maryland Risk Management Education Blog. “The Antibiotics Act does not apply to small operations, specifically on a farm operation selling fewer than 200 cattle, 200 swine, or 60,000 birds per year. However, the federal VFD (veterinary feed directive) rule does not have any exemptions for small farm operations.”
With their laws, the two states make overuse of antibiotics a legal matter rather than a regulatory issue. For instance, the sponsor of the California law said it would result in state monitoring of antibiotic sales, with fines on veterinarians and producers for violations. The state Department of Agriculture and Food is required under the law to write a list of best management practices and antimicrobial stewardship guidelines.
Animal agriculture is, by far, the largest user of antibiotics in the nation. Public health officials around the world advocate judicious use of antibiotics in human and animal care as a way to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics in treating disease in humans.
Maryland is a comparatively small producer of food-bearing animals. For example, it produced less than 2 percent of U.S. poultry meat in 2016.
“The laws come as restaurant chains such as Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Panera Bread Co., McDonald’s Corp. and Subway are working with their meat suppliers to curb the use of important human antibiotics,” said Reuters.