New law introduced to safeguard use of antibiotics in agriculture

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has introduced legislation to combat antibiotic resistant superbugs that develop when antibiotics are misused in animal agriculture. The Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act of 2013 directs the Food and Drug Administration to prohibit the use of human antibiotics in the feed and water of healthy farm animals if they jeopardize human health. The bill requires drug companies and agriculture producers to demonstrate that antibiotics are used to treat clinically diagnosable diseases – not just to fatten livestock. The over-use of these antibiotics contributes to the development of so-called ‘superbugs,’ or infections that cannot be treated with existing medicines. Read More