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Antibiotics proposal faces industry pushback
Story Date: 11/22/2017
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Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 11/21/17
Part of FDA's efforts to better assess gains in antimicrobial stewardship in agriculture involve increasing collection of data on antibiotic use and resistance. One of the ways it hopes to do this is by applying a different method of measuring yearly sales data on antimicrobial drugs used in food-animal production. Now, three major groups in the livestock industry are calling for FDA to reconsider.
What's the plan? FDA's proposal would apply to what is called a biomass denominator - which it defines as "the population of a given livestock species in the U.S. multiplied by the average weight of that species" - to tweak the annual sales and distribution data that animal drug sponsors must report to the agency. In effect, FDA's proposed method would give estimates of annual antimicrobial drug sales that are adjusted for the size of the animal population potentially being treated.
What do commodity groups say? "We believe FDA should withdraw this proposal and focus on working with USDA studies and the ongoing on-farm data collection projects, to report meaningful data that will reflect accurate information on antimicrobial use," Ken Maschhoff, president of the National Pork Producers Council, wrote in comments filed with the agency. The comment period closed last week.
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