Drugmakers sold 24 million pounds of antimicrobials for use in food-bearing animals last year, a slight decline from the previous year and the second-lowest total in a decade, said the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. Sales have declined sharply since the FDA shut down using the drugs to encourage weight gain in cattle, hogs, chickens, and turkeys as part of an effort to preserve the efficacy of antimicrobials in treating disease in humans.
The 2023 sales included 13.5 million pounds of so-called medically important antimicrobials, including 8.97 million pounds of tetracyclines and 1.35 million pounds of penicillins, said the report, which tracks sales and not actual use. Drug companies are required to report annual sales and target animals. An estimated 44 percent of medically important antimicrobials sold in 2023 were for use in hogs, 41 percent for cattle, 10 percent for turkeys, 2 percent for chickens, and 3 percent for other species.
Sales of medically important antimicrobials fell 2 percent in 2023 and were down 37 percent from their peak of 21.4 million pounds in 2015, said the FDA report.
Agriculture accounts for an estimated two-thirds of antibiotic use worldwide, much of it on farm animals but also on plants. Two recent estimates put agricultural use at 76,000 metric tons a year, or 167.6 million pounds.
The rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites has spurred global efforts to prevent overuse and misuse of the drugs. Nearly 200 UN member states approved a declaration last month to step up efforts to reduce the human death toll from AMR and to “meaningfully reduce” agricultural use of antimicrobials by 2030.
“AMR could unwind 100 years of progress in medicine, making infections that are easily treatable today a death sentence,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization.
The National Pork Producers Council said it had averted a possible call in the declaration for a 30 percent reduction in farm use of antimicrobials through its advocacy of the role farmers and veterinarians play in maintaining animal health.
In 2012, the FDA said in a “guidance for industry” document, GFI 209, that use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in animal agriculture should be restricted to the treatment and prevention of disease. Growth promotion “represents an injudicious use of these important drugs,” it said, and in the future, veterinarians should oversee use of the drugs. In 2021, another FDA document, GFI 263, began a phaseout of over-the-counter sales of medically important antimicrobials.