STEVE ROACH AND MADELEINE KLEVEN, SAFE AND HEALTHY FOOD TEAM, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Antibiotic resistance remains one of the most pressing public health threats of our time. Despite concerted global efforts to address this issue, recent data from the FDA's National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) underscores a troubling reality: many resistance trends are not improving as hoped. Instead, we're witnessing a worrisome rise in multidrug-resistant bacteria across various animal isolates, which has significant implications for both human health and food safety. When food animals are infected with germs that are resistant to antibiotics, the germs can make their way into the food supply through contamination of meat products at slaughter or the environment. If meat is not cooked or prepared correctly, these germs can infect humans, making them very sick. Therefore, seeing a rise in resistant germs in animals has troubling implications for human health.

STEVE ROACH AND MADELEINE KLEVEN, SAFE AND HEALTHY FOOD TEAM, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Last week, Senator Cory Booker sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging them to address major gaps in the Agency’s efforts to preserve our antibiotics and slow the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. As we have echoed in various blogs and agency letters, the FDA is not doing enough to stop the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in industrial animal agriculture - use which is driving the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs that threaten the lives of countless animals and people. 

STEVE ROACH AND MADELEINE KLEVEN, SAFE AND HEALTHY FOOD TEAM, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Check out FACT’s latest video about antibiotic resistance and the policy changes necessary to slow the spread of deadly antibiotic-resistant germs. 

MADELEINE KLEVEN SAFE & HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Join us in telling the FDA to collect vital data on the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals. 

Antibiotic use, especially overuse in animal agriculture, is a primary selective force behind the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In order to combat the spread of resistance, antibiotic stewardship - stopping the overuse of antibiotics - is essential. However, veterinary antibiotic use and stewardship cannot be optimized without measurement. It is impossible to know if efforts to reduce the overuse of antibiotics are effective or creating meaningful change over time, if there is no actual data on how antibiotics are being used.

MADELEINE KLEVEN SAFE & HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

In the Safe and Healthy Food Program’s work we talk a lot about antibiotic resistance - when a bacterial organism can no longer be killed by the antibiotics normally used to treat that bacterial infection. On a big picture level, the overuse of antibiotics, especially in industrial farming is a main driver of antibiotic resistance. This is a big problem, especially for those antibiotics which are medically important - used in both animals and humans.

MADELEINE KLEVEN SAFE & HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Next week (May 14-20) is Women’s Health week. This year’s theme is “Women's Health, Whole Health: Prevention, Care and Wellbeing”. This is a meaningful week encouraging women and girls everywhere to prioritize their health and wellness. Amidst the pandemic and other social turbulence, it is more important than ever to take a few deep breaths and focus on your physical and mental health. It is also critical that we push for policies and legislation that promote the health of women and in turn support healthier communities as a whole.

MADELEINE KLEVEN SAFE & HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Today, Food Animal Concerns Trust and 24 colleagues and ally organizations on behalf of the Keep Antibiotics Working Coalition sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Xavier Becerra, urging his immediate action in addressing the antibiotic resistance crisis.

This crisis causes approximately 1.27 million deaths globally each year and kills someone in the United States every 15 minutes. Despite these staggering numbers, and the ongoing spread of deadly antibiotic resistant superbugs - dangerous sometimes fatal infections that no longer respond to the antibiotics previously used to treat them - the U.S. response has fallen short on curbing its chief driver – widespread and avoidable overuse of these precious medicines. While antibiotic overuse exists in the human health sector, unmitigated and blatant overuse of antibiotics is occurring in industrial animal agriculture, where poor animal welfare practices are commonplace and antibiotics are used to bolster producer profits versus support for animal health and well-being. With U.S. sales of medically important antibiotics in animals nearly double the sales for human medicine, it is clear where major efforts to preserve antibiotics must be directed. Stopping the exorbitant  overuse of antibiotics in animal ag is key to keeping animals, and in turn humans, healthy. 

MADELEINE KLEVEN SAFE & HEALTHY FOOD PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, FOOD ANIMAL CONCERNS TRUST

Antibiotic resistance threatens to overturn much of the health advances of the twentieth century. As resistant bacteria spreads, more people become sick, more people are hospitalized, and more people die. While everyone is likely to get a resistant infection sooner or later, children, the elderly and those who are immunocompromised or suffering from chronic illness are most impacted. Antibiotic resistance makes health disparities worse, compounding problems caused by marginalization.