In a long-overdue move to regulate antibiotic use in cows, pigs, chickens and other livestock and poultry, the FDA will be implementing new guidelines in regards to the availability of antibiotics.
Rather than being available over the counter (and virtually ubiquitous) as they are now, antibiotic use will now be overseen by veterinarians and available by prescription only. This should limit widespread use of antibiotics, which puts animals and humans at risk of drug-resistant diseases and unnecessary side effects to the antibiotics themselves, which are unnecessary in healthy animals.
This is arguably the most important measure in meat and poultry regulation in recent memory. This action was taken in lieu of outright banning or restriction of drugs individually, instead leaving the decision on whether to use a medication up to trained vets.
This is good, but it should have been done decades ago. If it had been, we might not now be facing so many antibiotic-resistant diseases.
ReplyDeleteAm I wrong to think that one reason for the delay is that so many people are frightened of the word "evolution"?
No, that wasn't it.
DeleteThe problem is regular use of antibiotics also have the side effect of making animals grow at an increased rate. Ranchers are paid by the pound, so putting antibiotics in the feed was increasing output.
Waiting patiently for libertarians to chime in with the usual anti-regulation, "let the market decide!" hoo-hah because nothing about this is funny yet.
ReplyDeleteWell, it does kind of suck that when I contract syphilis next time, I can't just have some chicken nuggets.
DeleteHate to say it but this is too little, too late. There are so many antibiotic-resitant bugs now that we are on the brink of returning to a time when strep throat was a death sentence. We need a whole new class of antibiotics that kills bacteria faster than they can adapt. If we don't we are facing a major health crisis. Antibiotics are overprescribed in humans as well, that needs to change too.
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