Talking Points

The Animal Feed Act will:

• Significantly reduce the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture by eventually eliminating antibiotics from livestock feed;
• Provide farmers and other individuals a time frame in which the use of antibiotics in feed is gradually phased out, thus allowing time to find suitable alternatives; and
• Create a surcharge on commercial feed that will provide for monitoring and research services that will directly benefit the agricultural industry and the general public.

We need the Animal Feed Act because:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that, in the United States, antimicrobial use in food animals is the dominant source of antibiotic resistance among food-borne pathogens;
• According to a 1998 National Research Council study, “The Use of Drugs in Food Animals: Benefits and Risks,” the reported incidence of bacteria-related food-borne illness is increasing;
• The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that 70% of all food-borne illnesses in the United States can be traced to meat;
• According to the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), 5000 deaths and 76 million cases of food-borne illness occur annually;
• Overuse of antibiotics in animals is causing more strains of drug-resistant bacteria, which is affecting the treatment of various life-threatening diseases in humans. The Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences has estimated that the annual cost of treating antibiotic-resistant infections in the U.S. is $30 billion;
• The CDC estimates that there are two to four million Campylobacter infections per year, resulting in as many as 250 deaths each year in the United States. Furthermore, about one in a thousand Campylobacter infections leads to Guillan-Barre syndrome, a disease that can cause paralysis. There is evidence that Campylobacter is becoming resistant to fluoroquinolones due to their use in poultry, which the FDA approved only a few years ago;
• Every year, approximately 40,000 cases of Salmonella are reported in the United States, which is showing high rates of antibiotic resistance; and
• Each year in the United States an estimated 73,000 people suffer from E. coli O157:H7 infections. Antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli O157:H7 in humans are correlated with antibiotic use in cattle.

The subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture is unnecessary.

• Antibiotics in agriculture are used subtherapeutically to promote weight gain, increase the feed-to-weight gain ratio, and reduce mortality rates among animal populations; there are alternatives available to achieve these results without the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics.
• The use of antibiotics in a subtherapeutic manner renders those antibiotics useless when they are needed to treat bacterial infections in a therapeutic manner.
• The General Accounting Office (GAO) has released reports that examine how eliminating the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture, as the European Union did in December 1998, will not substantially raise the price of meat.
• The rise in popularity of rearing animals in industrial-style “farms” or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) has prompted an increase in the use of antibiotics to compensate for overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Rather than raising animals in clean, uncrowded conditions, farmers have chosen to administer antibiotics as a substitute for proper care.

There are many reasons to be concerned about the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture.

• Many of the antibiotics used in agriculture are also routinely used to treat common bacterial ailments in humans.
• As the use of antibiotics has increased, there has been a growth in the number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains against which common antibiotics are no longer effective.
• Many of these antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria include those that cause common food-borne illness. These bacteria include, but are not limited to, Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Cyclospora cayetanesis, and Campylobacterjejuni.
• Food-borne illnesses are now becoming more difficult to treat due to the increase in antibiotic-resistant strains and the decreased effectiveness of antibiotics routinely used as a first-line defense. This has dangerous implications for sensitive populations, including children, the elderly, and pregnant women.
• There are many routes in which humans may come in contact with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These include, but are not limited to:
  • The consumption of contaminated meat;
  • The cross-contamination of infected meat with other sources of food;
  • Open air manure storage lagoons, which may contaminate surface and groundwater due to improper maintenance; and
  • Farm workers or slaughterhouse workers who inadvertently contaminate food sources during the daily course of work.
• There has been little action by the federal government to address this growing threat to the public’s health.

Many organizations are concerned about the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture.

• Many government organizations have voiced concern and have recommended curtailing the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics. These organizations include the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA-CVM), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the General Accounting Office (GAO).
• International organizations have also voiced concern over the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture. These include the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union (EU), which voted to ban the use of bacitracin zinc, spiramycin, tylosin, and virginiamycin for subtherapeutic purposes in December 1998.
• Other organizations have raised similar concerns and released documents demonstrating this concern. These organizations include the National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association (AMA), the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (IOM) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

The subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in agriculture has a long history.

• There is an extensive history detailing concern over the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in healthy animals. The use of antibiotics in this manner began in the late 1940s and continues through today.