Food Producer Coalition Issues Report on Animal Antibiotics
The American Veterinary Medicine Association (AVMA) has submitted a report to Congress that challenges the 2008 findings of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which supports legislation (H.R. 1549 and S. 619) seeking to prohibit or limit the use of low-level antibiotics in agriculture. Signed by 20 food producer organizations, an introductory letter states that the Pew Commission and other supporters of the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) “offer no new information or data to make their case, but rather echo inaccurate messages.” The signatories have called on the Obama administration to honor its pledge to base its regulatory decisions on “the best available science,” not the opinions of “PhD issue advocates or animal rights activists.”
AVMA specifically faults the Pew Commission for failing to “incorporate the findings and suggestions of a significant number of participating academicians.” Focusing on the areas of antimicrobial resistance, the environment and animal welfare, AVMA discovered that the report’s details contained “significant shortfalls” and lacked “comprehensive idea development” about how to execute a new plan or program for reform. According to the veterinary association, Pew’s recommendations “for highly restrictive bans on antibiotic use, which are also being used to advocate for PAMTA, have not been proven beneficial to public health” and do not take into account less restrictive bans implemented in Denmark and the Netherlands, where scientists found “that even a small decrease in antibiotic use severely diminished animal health and welfare without significantly improving human health.”
“Both in substance and in approach, therefore, the Pew report contains significant flaws and major deviations from both science and reality,” concludes the AVMA response. “The report is, in many ways, a prolonged narrative designed to romanticize the small, independent farmer, while vilifying larger operations, based simply upon their size.” See American Feed Ingredients Association Press Release, August 14, 2009; AVMA Press Release, August 17, 2009; and Meatingplace.com, August 17 and 19, 2009.
