CONGRESS SHOULD PUT COMMON SENSE AHEAD OF PROFITS
Only the FDA's convoluted regulations would put the needs of cattle over that of people. Or more to the point, the profits of the cattle industry over the health of Americans.
The most apt word to portray the federal agency's plans to approve a new antibiotic for cattle is a common barnyard epithet. Medical experts, including the American Medical Association and the Union of Concerned Scientists, continue to express fears that the use of antibiotics in the animals Americans consume severely damages the effectiveness of antibiotics used by humans.
Congress should take action to force the FDA to abandon its plans to approve the use of the antibiotic cefquinome. It should start by pointing out that the FDA's own scientific committee recommended against granting the cattle industry permission to use the antibiotic.
Then Congress should look into the subject of why the cattle industry is so desperate to win approval of the powerful new drug.
According to a Washington Post report, the industry's common practice of packing cattle tightly together for train trips of hundreds or thousands of miles puts tremendous stress on the animals, so much so that it often suppresses the cattle's immune systems. The industry wants approval of the new, powerful antibiotic to protect their interests.
But scientists have demonstrated in the past that the use of antibiotics in chickens and pigs, for example, eventually sharply reduces the antibiotics' effectiveness for humans.
The FDA's regulations, according to the Post investigation, force the agency to prove that the drug would damage human's resistance to antibiotics -- an unrealistic approach because it can take years to develop.
Doctors have known for years that the number of effective antibiotics is in decline, and that it is becoming increasingly difficult for scientists to develop new medicines to fight infections. This means we must ensure the effectiveness of the antibiotics we have.
The benefits to the cattle industry are far outweighed by the potential needs of humans. If the FDA doesn't see the error of its ways, then Congress must step in and send the cattle industry packing.San Jose Mercury News
