The FDA Needs to Move Forward With Protecting Medically Important Antibiotics
Guest Blog: MADELEINE KLEVEN & STEVE ROACH, SAFE & HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE & DIRECTOR, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST A lot of different chemicals and drugs are used in industrial animal agriculture as the meat industry is highly chemically dependent. Medically important antibiotics are one group of drugs that the meat industry relies upon and these can create a real problem when overused. Medically important antibiotics are antibiotics that are used in both animal agriculture and human medicine. When resistance develops to these drugs it is dangerous because they are used to treat everything from eye infections and burns to critical respiratory diseases and surgical infections in people. Currently, we have the opportunity to tell the FDA that we need to preserve these medically important antibiotics for human and animal health.