FDA sued over growth-promoting antibiotic use on the farm

[n2doc]

By Maryn McKenna,

A little less than a year ago, the Food and Drug Administration took a step that, depending on your point of view, was either far too activist or nowhere-near-enough-but-good-try: it proposed, in a draft document, that the agricultural industry voluntarily restrict its use of growth-promoting micro-doses of antibiotics.

It was a significant step. The FDA has been trying to restrict subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock since the 1970s because of the practice’s clear contribution to the development of antibiotic resistance, and had always been defeated. At the same time, it was far from bold: The proposal was made in a draft document that would be made final at some unspecified future date, and that when it became final would have behind it no force of regulation or law. (Here’s my long discussion from last year of the context and history of FDA’s move.)

And there things rested, while the FDA’s docket reportedly filled up with thousands of comments from both sides of the issue. The document—formally, Draft Guidance #209, Judicious Use of Antimicrobial Drugs in Food-Producing Animals—is scheduled to be finalized sometime before the end of this year. But in its draft form, it excited abundant opposition, and the administration official who seemed to be leading the charge on it, memorably suggesting, “We have the regulatory mechanisms and the industry knows that,” has left the FDA for a state-government job.

Clearly, things aren’t moving very fast. So today, a coalition of nonprofit groups attempted to get the issue jump-started: They sued.


more

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/05/fda-sued-over-growth-promoting-antibiotic-use-on-the-farm.ars