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Task force working on plan to combat antibiotics resistance

 

By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH

Indiana Correspondent

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Antibiotic resistance is growing in animals used in production agriculture, according to the chair of a committee created to help provide solutions for the problem.

The group is a part of a broader Obama administration effort to find ways to combat increasing antibiotic resistance in humans and animals. President Obama, who has called such resistance a national security priority, has set a Feb. 15, 2015, deadline for the formation of a five-year strategic plan.

The yearly impact of human antibiotic-resistant infections on the nation’s economy may be as high as $20 billion in health care costs and $35 billion in lost productivity, noted the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in a report released in September. Such infections are associated with 23,000 deaths and 2 million illnesses annually, the report said, adding the problem is worsening.

The goal of the Task Force on Antibiotic Resistance in Production Agriculture will be to recommend research options and ways to better educate the public on the use of antibiotics in production animals, said Lonnie J. King, task force chair and dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University.

"Antibiotic resistance is never going to go away," he cautioned. "The struggle against resistance is a war we’ll never win. But we can win battles."

Scientists and officials are looking for opportunities to reduce the use of antibiotics so they’re available when needed, King said. "Antibiotic resistance is a major crisis in public health, human health. It’s being addressed in animal agriculture because we don’t want to find ourselves in the same position as human health."

King’s task force includes representatives from the National Pork Producers Council, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc. (NCBA) and veterinary colleges at Purdue and Texas A&M universities. The group’s first meeting will be shortly after the first of the year in Washington, D.C., King said.

The committee’s formation was announced earlier this month by the Assoc. of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Assoc. of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.

The task force will focus on looking forward rather than pointing fingers in the past, King said.

Stewardship of current antibiotics is a key to helping reduce the occurrences of resistance, he added. "Use them only when necessary and choose the right antibiotic, the right dose," he said. "The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says that one-third to one-half of the antibiotics used on humans are not needed or used inappropriately.

"Don’t think that’s not a problem in animals, too. Over time, (producers) just depend on the drugs. It is part economic and part being good stewards of the animals."

Recommendations regarding use of antibiotics in production animals have been developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and will be implemented beginning in December 2016. The voluntary guidance "places these medically important antibiotics exclusively under veterinary oversight and removes their use for growth promotion purposes," said Kathy Simmons, chief veterinarian for the NCBA.

"Antibiotics are only one tool used to control disease in animals. Farmers and ranchers work with their veterinarians to develop herd health plans, which include vaccination and non-therapeutic management practices, such as low-stress handling, in order to reduce or eliminate the risks for infectious diseases."

Under the FDA plan, drug companies would change label-use conditions to remove the use of antimicrobial drugs for production purposes and add, when appropriate, scientifically-supported disease treatment, control or prevention uses, the agency said.

The companies would also allow for veterinary oversight or consultation by revising the marketing status from over-the-counter to Veterinary Feed Directive or prescription status.

As a way to fight the resistance problem, it may be tempting to suggest the creation of more and different antibiotics – but that isn’t as easy as it sounds, King pointed out. "Any new antibiotics will probably come out of the private sector, but it’s costly," he explained.

"It costs $800 million to $1 billion for a new human antibiotic to be created and work its way through the approval process, including testing. If there’s not a market (for the new drug), they’ll make a business decision not to do this."

While the testing and approval process is different for antibiotics used on animals, it’s still an expensive procedure, King said.

Informing the public about the use of antibiotics in agriculture is necessary, he said: "The public doesn’t understand. We want to educate the public and demonstrate positive movement in animal agriculture. People need to know when antibiotics are used, and will their food still be safe. We’re not here to change people’s minds. We’re just interested in the truth."

11/19/2014