Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has introduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, PAMTA, H.R. 965, S. 1211, which would withdraw the routine use of seven classes of antibiotics from use in food animals unless they are indicated for treatment of disease or illness or the drug companies can prove that their use does not harm human health.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is the sponsor of the Senate version of the bill.

Slaughter was sponsor of a similar bill during the last Congressional session.

The bill would amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. 360b, and phase out non-therapeutic use of seven classes of antibiotics in agriculture including any others in the same chemical class.

Antibiotics such as penicillin, tetracycline, macrolide, lincosamide, streptogramin, aminoglycoside, or sulfonamide, are fed to animals held in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions on factory farms. The antibiotics make it possible to raise animals in such deplorable conditions and prevent the spread of some disease. These antibiotics not only support factory farming, but also their widespread use has undermined their effectiveness in humans. 

Indeed, the threat is growing. A September, 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, was bluntly titled, "Agencies Have Made Little Progress Addressing Antibiotic Use in Animals". GAO found:

"Health and Human Services and USDA have collected some data on antibiotic use in food animals and on resistant bacteria in animals and retail meat. However, these data lack crucial details necessary to examine trends and understand the relationship between use and resistance. For example, ...FDA began collecting data from drug companies on antibiotics sold for use in food animals, but the data do not show what species antibiotics are used in or the purpose of their use, such as for treating disease or improving animals' growth rates.

"Also, although USDA agencies continue to collect use data through existing surveys of producers, data from these surveys provide only a snapshot of antibiotic use practices. In addition, agencies' data on resistance are not representative of food animals and retail meat across the nation and, in some cases, because of a change in sampling method, have become less representative .... Without detailed use data and representative resistance data, agencies cannot examine trends and understand the relationship between use and resistance.

"FDA implemented a process to mitigate the risk of new animal antibiotics leading to resistance in humans, which involves the assessment of factors such as the probability that antibiotic use in food animals would give rise to resistant bacteria in the animals, but it faces challenges mitigating risk from antibiotics approved before FDA issued guidance in 2003. FDA officials told GAO that conducting postapproval risk assessments for each of the antibiotics approved prior to 2003 would be prohibitively resource intensive, and that pursuing this approach could further delay progress. Instead, FDA proposed a voluntary strategy in 2010 that involves FDA working with drug companies to limit approved uses of antibiotics and increasing veterinary supervision of use. However, FDA does not collect the antibiotic use data, including the purpose of use, needed to measure the strategy's effectiveness.

"HHS and USDA have taken some steps to research alternatives to current antibiotic use practices and educate producers and veterinarians on appropriate use of antibiotics. However, the extent of these efforts is unclear because the agencies have not assessed their effectiveness. Without an assessment of past efforts, the agencies may be limited in their ability to identify gaps where additional research is needed. Except for one $70,400 USDA project, all other federal education programs have ended.

"Since 1995, the EU, including Denmark, banned the use of antibiotics to promote growth in animals, among other actions. Some of their experiences may offer lessons for the United States".

After reading this GAO report, Rep. Slaughter had this to say: "This study reveals how unprepared we are to deal with the growing threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria and the American public should be outraged.... We have had two massive meat recalls just in the last month showing salmonella strains resistant to antibiotics. Clearly there is an increasing public health threat here and we need more than 'limited progress' - we need concrete solutions like those proposed in my bill."

A number of public health and medical organizations have issued a joint letter to Congress regarding this issue.

In 2010, the FDA determined that--

(A) 1,300,000 kilograms of antibacterial drugs were sold for use on food animals in the United States in 2009;

(B) 3,300,000 kilograms of antibacterial drugs were used for human health in 2009; and

(C) therefore, 80 percent of antibacterial drugs disseminated in the United States in 2009 were sold for use on food animals, rather than being used for human health.

In 2010, the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Cell published a study demonstrating that low-dosage use of antibiotics causes a dramatic increase in genetic mutation, raising new concerns about the agricultural practice of using low-dosage antibiotics in order to stimulate growth promotion and routinely prevent disease in unhealthy conditions. 

There are a number of other studies warning that antibiotic resistance is a threat to public health: 

"[A]ny overuse or misuse of antibiotics contributes to the spread of antibiotic resistance, whether in human medicine or in agriculture". (Jan. 2001 federal interagency task force report)

"[I]n a March 2003 report, the National Academy of Sciences stated that...substantial efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse in animals". Approximately 70% of "the antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs used in the United States are fed to farm animals for nontherapeutic purposes, including... growth promotion; and ... compensation for crowded, unsanitary, and stressful farming and transportation conditions; and... unlike human use of antibiotics, these nontherapeutic uses in animals typically do not require a prescription".

"[L]arge-scale, voluntary surveys by the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in 1999, 2001, and 2006 revealed that 84 percent of grower-finisher swine farms, 83 percent of cattle feedlots, and 84 percent of sheep farms administer antimicrobials in the feed or water for health or growth promotion reasons, and many of the antimicrobials identified are identical or closely related to drugs used in human medicine, including tetracyclines, macrolides, Bacitracin, penicillins, and sulfonamides; and ...these drugs are used in people to treat serious diseases such as pneumonia, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, venereal disease, skin infections, and even pandemics like malaria and plague, as well as bioterrorism agents like smallpox and anthrax". "[M]any scientific studies confirm that the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in agricultural animals contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in people".

A "United States Geological Survey reported in March 2002 that... antibiotics were present in 48 percent of the streams tested nationwide; and ... almost half of the tested streams were downstream from agricultural operations".

As long ago as April 1999 the General Accounting Office concluded that resistant strains of 3 microorganisms that cause food-borne illness or disease in humans--Salmonella, Campylobacter, and E. coli--are linked to the use of antibiotics in animals.

In "October 2001, the New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial urging a ban on nontherapeutic use of medically important antibiotics in animals". 

There are other studies and also evidence of enormous health care costs associated with treating antibiotic resistant infections.

Moreover, "the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture are among the more than 300 organizations representing health, consumer, agricultural, environmental, humane, and other interests that have supported enactment of legislation to phase out nontherapeutic use in farm animals of medically important antibiotics".

For more on the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals.....