FDA sued over antibiotics in animal feed

A coalition of health and consumer organisations have filed a federal lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), claiming that the FDA failed to take action to protect human health. The suit alleges that the FDA has known since 1977 that feeding animals low doses of certain antibiotics used in human medicine namely penicillin and tetracyclines could promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria capable of infecting people.

Despite this conclusion and laws requiring that the agency act on its findings, the FDA failed to take any action to protect human health. The lawsuit seeks to "compel FDA to take action on the agency's own safety findings, withdrawing approval for most non-therapeutic uses of penicillin and tetracyclines in animal feed." Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little, The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine and the International Milling Directory from Perendale Publishers