Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 12/8/17

U.S. sales and distribution of antibiotics approved for use in food animals fell 10 percent in 2016, the Food and Drug Administration said in a report published this month.

It marked the first year-to-year sales drop since 2009 when the agency began collecting such data, food and consumer health groups noted.

Fears that regular use of antibiotics in livestock is fostering antibiotic resistant infections in people prompted FDA to issue guidelines in 2013 partly aimed at reducing drugs deemed medically important that could be used to promote animal growth.

Domestic sales and distribution in that category decreased by 14 percent in 2016, according to the latest report.

Medically important antimicrobial drugs represented 60 percent of U.S. sales of all antimicrobials approved for use in food animals that year, with 43 percent intended for cattle, 37 percent for swine, 9 percent for turkeys and 6 percent for chickens, the agency noted.

Tetracyclines accounted for 70 percent of these sales, penicillins for 10 percent, macrolides for 7 percent, sulfas for 4 percent, aminoglycosides for 4 percent, lincosamides for 2 percent, and cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones each for less than 1 percent.

View the full report here.

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