How Denmark Tackled Antibiotic Resistance in Livestock
How Denmark Tackled Antibiotic Resistance in Livestock
The United States lacks anything close to the extensive monitoring system in place in Denmark. "We're concerned with the lack of surveillance," says Gail Hansen, an expert on human health and industrial farming at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The only publicly available data collected in the United States give sales figures for total amounts of antibiotics used on food animals nationwide; the kind of information Danish researchers cite as essential to their system—who is administering what amounts of antibiotic to what animals—is unavailable. The new voluntary guidelines from the FDA also don't mention monitoring. "We've asked the agency repeatedly how they plan to monitor this and not gotten meaningful answers," says Hansen.
A small group of senators and Congress members have been trying to address the issue through legislation. Representative Louise Slaughter (D–NY) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–CA) have long supported bills they call the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (H.R. 1150) and the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act (S. 1256), respectively. The bills have failed to make their way out of committee onto the floor of either house, although both continue to gain new sponsors. In October 2012 Representative Henry Waxman (D–CA) introduced the Delivering Antimicrobial Transparency in Animals Act (H.R. 820), which would require large-scale producers of poultry, swine, and other livestock to submit detailed annual reports to the FDA on the type and amount of antibiotics contained in the feed given to their animals. That bill also made no progress.
"The industrial farm system in the U.S. has grown up with antibiotics," notes Hansen. "But throwing antibiotics at a problem and calling it prevention almost never works."
Chronic, low-dose administration, she says, is the worst possible way to use the drugs that transformed medicine in the twentieth century. Unless we can change our ways, the twenty-first century may witness the end of that medical miracle. Denmark's experience shows a practical way of moving toward a different future—one that holds both a healthy livestock industry and viable antibiotic therapies for people who need them.
Surveillance is Key
The United States lacks anything close to the extensive monitoring system in place in Denmark. "We're concerned with the lack of surveillance," says Gail Hansen, an expert on human health and industrial farming at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The only publicly available data collected in the United States give sales figures for total amounts of antibiotics used on food animals nationwide; the kind of information Danish researchers cite as essential to their system—who is administering what amounts of antibiotic to what animals—is unavailable. The new voluntary guidelines from the FDA also don't mention monitoring. "We've asked the agency repeatedly how they plan to monitor this and not gotten meaningful answers," says Hansen.
A small group of senators and Congress members have been trying to address the issue through legislation. Representative Louise Slaughter (D–NY) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–CA) have long supported bills they call the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (H.R. 1150) and the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act (S. 1256), respectively. The bills have failed to make their way out of committee onto the floor of either house, although both continue to gain new sponsors. In October 2012 Representative Henry Waxman (D–CA) introduced the Delivering Antimicrobial Transparency in Animals Act (H.R. 820), which would require large-scale producers of poultry, swine, and other livestock to submit detailed annual reports to the FDA on the type and amount of antibiotics contained in the feed given to their animals. That bill also made no progress.
"The industrial farm system in the U.S. has grown up with antibiotics," notes Hansen. "But throwing antibiotics at a problem and calling it prevention almost never works."
Chronic, low-dose administration, she says, is the worst possible way to use the drugs that transformed medicine in the twentieth century. Unless we can change our ways, the twenty-first century may witness the end of that medical miracle. Denmark's experience shows a practical way of moving toward a different future—one that holds both a healthy livestock industry and viable antibiotic therapies for people who need them.
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