FDA Announces New Rule For Antibiotics Use In Livestock.

The New York Times  (4/12, A19, Harris, Subscription Publication) reports, "Farmers and ranchers will for the first time need a prescription from a veterinarian before using antibiotics in farm animals, in hopes that more judicious use of the drugs will reduce the tens of thousands of human deaths that result each year from the drugs' overuse."

        The Washington Post  (4/12, Elboghdady) reports, "The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday finalized a plan that would ask drug companies to voluntarily limit the use of certain antibiotics in animal feed, citing long-held concerns that their overuse in livestock promotes the development of drug-resistant bacteria that can infect people."

        The Los Angeles Times  (4/12, Brown) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "The FDA's recommendations included guidelines to help the industry phase out the antibiotics for "production use" and transfer oversight of the drugs for therapeutic work to veterinarians (that is, require a prescription)." The agency "also offered draft guidance to drug companies for labeling their products to require a prescription and draft regulations to allow veterinarians to authorize the use of 'certain drugs' in feed."

        However, "skeptics fear the animal pharmaceutical industry will make only cosmetic changes and the meat producers will continue using feed with antibiotics," USA Today  (4/12, Weise) reports. Steve Roach with the Food Animal Concerns Trust in Chicago, said, "They'll just stop marketing drugs as growth promoters and instead market them for disease prevention at exactly the same doses and same period of use."

        The AP  (4/12, Perrone) reports, "The FDA hopes drugmakers will phase out language promoting non-medical uses within three years." However, "some public health advocates said they do not trust the drug industry to voluntarily restrict its own products." But "FDA officials said that a formal ban would have required individual hearings for each drug, which could take decades."

        The Hill  (4/12, Pecquet) "Healthwatch" blog reports, "The agency released three documents as part of an effort FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg called 'critical' to protect public health." Hamburg said, "The new strategy will ensure farmers and veterinarians can care for animals while ensuring the medicines people need remain safe and effective." She added, "We are also reaching out to animal producers who operate on a smaller scale or in remote locations to help ensure the drugs they need to protect the health of their animals are still available."

        The National Journal  (4/12, Sanger-Katz, Subscription Publication) quotes Michael Taylor, the FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Foods, who said, "We can make changes more quickly than if we had to rely slowly on a cumbersome regulatory process that would require us to seek change drug by drug." In addition, "Taylor said that the guidance was finalized in consultation with the meat industry, and said FDA expects significant reductions in antibiotic use within three years." However, "not everyone in the meat industry was cheering the guidelines."

        The NPR  (4/12, Charles) "The Salt" blog says "the issue has been contentious for decades." In March, "a federal judge ruled that the FDA had to go ahead with a plan it proposed in 1977 that would ban the use of some antibiotics as a growth promoter in animals. For years, the FDA has been saying that practice is both unnecessary and dangerous."

        "According to the FDA, the three documents being issued include guidelines for industry to assist in phasing out the use of antibiotics and increasing the oversight by veterinarians," HealthDay  (4/12, Reinberg) reports. "The second document is a proposal to help drug companies phase out recommendations on using antibiotics for farm animals. And the third proposal outlines how veterinarians can use animal drugs in feed." HealthDay adds, "The US Department of Agriculture is also involved with the new initiative."

        Also covering are the Wall Street Journal  (4/12, A2, Tomson, Subscription Publication), Reuters  (4/12, Yukhananov), Bloomberg News  (4/12, Armour, Edney), the CNN  (4/12, Bonifield) "The Chart" blog, WebMD  (4/12, DeNoon), and MedPage Today  (4/12, Gever).