US bill aims to end antibiotic misuse

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - A New York Congresswoman introduced House Bill 1549, which may affect how some area farms operate.

The legislation comes just days after a columnist with the New York Times linked hog farms to an antibiotic resistant infection called MRSA.

Days after New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof put Camden hog farms in the spotlight. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, also from New York, sponsored a bill to eliminate antibiotics in livestock feed.

"Our bill would, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, require the FDA to review the safety and to phase out the seven classes of the medically significant antibiotics approved for non-therapeutic use in animal agriculture, unless the manufacturer can prove no danger to public health from resistance," said Slaughter, (D) U.S. Representative, NY.

Slaughter added that the medicine is overused because the hogs are kept in tight quarters.

"Antibiotics are just fed to the herds in their daily feed. The purpose is not that they are sick, it's that they want to compensate for what are really unsanitary conditions and awful crowding conditions," said Slaughter.

Dean Scott, Carroll County Agricultural Association Chair said he can't speak for everyone, but only sick animals are given antibiotics. He said healthy animals are given vitamins to prevent sickness.

Tufts University professor of microbiology Stuart Levy said giving drugs to animals should not be taken lightly.

"These are societal drugs and have to be given better respect. They are ecologic as well. When the animals are fed these antibiotics, their feces [go into the water], the water goes out into the fields, where in many instances our vegetables are being grown," said Levy.

Levy pointed to how Europe handles antibiotics and livestock.

"This is a practice that has been banned in the European Union. They still successfully raise their animals and their agriculture, but they don't have this practice. In fact, they have substantially shown that not only does it work, but in time, and I use this term carefully, it's not going to happen tomorrow, but in time there is a reduction in the carriage in people and animals of drug resistant bacteria," said Levy.

Ching Ching Wu, Purdue University professor of veterinary pathobiology and head of microbiology in the Animal Disease and Diagnostic Laboratory, said she doubts there is an overuse of antibiotics in healthy animals because of the high cost of the drugs.