N.Y. Lawmaker Asks GAO to Review Data on Antibiotic Use in Animals

U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (D-New York) has asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review federal efforts to collect data on antibiotic use in animals. In a letter to Acting Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, Slaughter asked for the study because a 2005 GAO report found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) were not collecting data “on the types and amounts of antibiotics used in different species of food
animals or whether the antibiotics were used to promote growth, prevent disease, or treat disease.”

Slaughter, who chairs the House Committee on Rules, also introduced a bill earlier this year to restrict the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animals raised for meat, citing claims that animal antibiotic use has made some antibiotics less effective in treating human health problems. Her letter requests that GAO find out what efforts USDA, FDA and CDC have made to assess the human health risks related to antibiotic use in animals. See Congress Daily, September 21, 2009.