7.8 My topic & Agencies

My topic for the literature review and final project is the usage of antibiotics in livestock and its effect on human health. Antibiotics are given to livestock to increase their growth, improve feed utilization, and reduce mortality and morbidity from clinical and subclinical infections in animals. These antibiotics given to livestock are increasing the antibiotic resistant (AR) in not only the animals but in humans. My literature review will be examining the effects these antibiotics have on human’s health and how they are increasing the AR in the body’s ability fight common diseases or illnesses. 

There are many distinguished bodies who are raising the alarms over antibiotic resistance. These include World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the European Medicines Agency, the Institute of Medicine, the World Economic Forum, and the US Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology. The main agency in charge of addressing this very pertinent topic is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has many components to them but in regard to food and safety their mission is “…responsible for protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.”  Last year, in January 2017, the FDA officially banned the use of antibiotics on livestock without a prescription from a veterinarian and also made it illegal to use antibiotics solely to make animals fatter. Sadly, there are thousands of meat samples still being found today containing antibiotics that are claimed to be “critically important” in human medicine. The FDA; along with local, state, and international agencies; need to push further this ban of illegal antibiotic use in the meat given to humans as food. 

While doing research for this blog and the agencies involved with my topic, I found an article stating that in 2015 Governor Brown signed into law SB27, which made California the leading state to make the use of antibiotics in livestock only legal with a veterinarian’s prescription. I have not looked up other states yet to see if any other states followed in CA's lead but the FDA did put into place their ban in 2017.