If the federal Food and Drug Administration moves ahead with a plan to approve a new, potent antibiotic for use in cattle, it will risk undermining the effectiveness of an entire class of powerful antibiotics to treat humans. That's too big a gamble - especially for people who already rely on one of those drugs to fight life-threatening infections.
Cefquinome is specifically designed to treat bovine respiratory disease, a pneumonia-like illness common in cattle. It's the fourth generation of a highly powerful family of antibiotics - cephalosporins - none of which have been approved for use in animals.
Only one other medicine from that family is authorized for use in the United States. Called cefepime, it's the drug of last resort for humans suffering from infections that would otherwise be invincible.
The FDA appears poised to approve the use of cefquinome. In so doing, it will be going against the recommendations of its own advisory board, the American Medical Association and a dozen other health organizations, who have stated that the use of the drug in cattle may create super-resistant strains of bacteria that will ultimately end up infecting humans. Worse, it would render an entire class of important antibiotics useless.
In the mid-1990s (over the objections of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) the FDA authorized the marketing of two antibiotics for use in poultry, Baytril and SaraFlox. The drugs were useful in fighting the bacterium that causes anthrax and another, food-borne bacterium that causes severe diarrhea. Before long, doctors started seeing resistant strains of bacterium in patients being hospitalized with severe diarrhea.
The FDA's advisory board also notes that there are already more than a dozen medicines on the market for bovine respiratory disease and that all are effective. So the cattle industry doesn't even need cefquinome.
But the FDA is moving ahead, citing its own, industry-friendly policy that makes it almost impossible to reject a new animal drug unless it threatens the effectiveness of antibiotics critical to fighting food-borne illnesses exclusively. Cefquinome doesn't meet that standard.
Bad policy is no excuse for jeopardizing the interests of public health. The FDA should follow the advice of its own advisory board and various health organizations by rejecting the use of cefquinome in cattle. Otherwise, people suffering from virulent infections - including cancer patients - may lose a last, powerful ally in their struggles for survival.
Copyright 2007, Hartford CourantHartford Courant (CT)
