Sales of medically important antibiotics for use in food animals are down by 41 percent in two years as part of the FDA’s campaign to preserve the efficacy of antibiotics. “We hope this downward trend will continue,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Tuesday. “These reductions are an indication that our ongoing efforts to support antimicrobial stewardship are having a significant impact.”
The FDA is encouraging careful use of antibiotics in medical and animal health as a way to slow the development of resistant pathogens, such as bacteria and parasites. An estimated 2 million Americans a year develop serious infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant pathogens and 23,000 of them die as a direct result. ‘While it’s impossible to completely out-rate antimicrobial resistance, we can take important steps now to slow its paces and reduce its impact on both human and animal health,” said Gottlieb.
Some 5.56 million kilograms (12.26 million pounds) of medically important antimicrobials, measured in active ingredient, were sold for food animals in 2017, compared to 9.7 million kg in 2015 and 8.4 million kg in 2016, said FDA in an annual report.
Activists credited consumer demand and food-company action, along with FDA policy, for the “striking results,” as phrased by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a consumer group. Yet Steve Roach of the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition of consumer, environmental, public health and animal welfare groups cautioned, “One troubling trend is an increase in the use of the critically important fluoroquinolone class, which increased by 24 percent in 2017.
“This is important because fluoroquinolones are a likely treatment for things people catch from food animals like salmonella and campylobacter,” said Roach.
From a peak in 2015, sales fell by 41 percent in two years. They declined by 33 percent in 2017, the first full year covered by an FDA “guidance to industry,” that barred use of medically important antibiotics as a growth promoting agent for cattle, hogs and poultry and which required veterinary approval to use the drug to treat or prevent disease in them.
The livestock industry, producing billions of animals a year, is a heavy user of antibiotics. Experts say over-use or inappropriate use of antibiotics, whether in human or animal settings, increases the risk of antimicrobial resistance by giving pathogens the opportunity to develop a tolerance for antibiotics. The FDA cautioned that its report tracks sale and distribution of antimicrobials but does not represent their actual use.
Tetracyclines perennially account for the bulk of sales—3.5 million kg, or 63 percent, in 2017, for instance. Sales of that class of medicine have declined sharply, like other types of antimicrobials. In 2015, 6.9 million kg of tetracyclines were sold.
“Much of this is related to reductions in tetracycline use in cattle and swine,” said Roach of Keep Antibiotics Working.
More than three-quarters of antibiotics sold for food animals were expected to go to cattle and hogs, which take much longer to raise than poultry.
“Further progress on antibiotics use in cattle and swine may be achievable and could have a critical impact in fighting the threat of antibiotic resistance,” said CSPI.
Separately, a group of food companies, retailers, livestock producers, trade groups and professional associations announced a comprehensive plan for stewardship of antibiotics in food animals. The framework includes performance measures for gauging progress. “There is a broad consensus across the food animal industry that we must continue to drive and demonstrate antibiotic stewardship in animal agriculture,” said Joe Swedberg, chairman of the board of Farm Foundation. The foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts moderated the dialogue among stakeholders that led to agreement on the framework.