A recent study in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology reportedly attributes an anaphylactic reaction in a 10-year-old girl to the antibiotic pesticide applied to the blueberries in the pie she was eating. François Graham et al., “Risk of allergic reaction and sensitization to antibiotics in foods,” Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, September 2014. The girl was known to be allergic to penicillin and cow’s milk but not to any ingredients in the blueberry pie. Following weeks of testing on the girl and on the sample of pie, researchers concluded that the streptomycin, an antibiotic often used as a pesticide to combat the growth of bacteria, fungi and algae in fruit, caused her reaction. “As far as we know, this is the first report that links an allergic reaction to fruits treated with antibiotic pesticides,” lead author Anne Des Roches was quoted as saying in a September 3, 2014,…
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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups have requested that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reconsider its decision that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not required to begin proceedings to withdraw approval of certain antibiotics in livestock feed. NRDC Inc. v. FDA, No. 12-2106 (2d Cir., petition filed September 8, 2014). Additional details about the Second Circuit’s split ruling appear in Issue 531 of this Update. According to a news source, the petitioners contend that the panel majority overlooked FDA’s initial findings that the use of antibiotics in animal feed is unsafe and “writes the withdrawal provision out of the Food and Drug Act.” FDA considered the safety of penicillin and tetracyclines in animal feed in 1977, but never conducted adversarial hearings with industry as purportedly required under the law, opting instead to seek the voluntary withdrawal of animal feed with antibiotics from the market. See Law360,…
A recent study examining early microbiota disruption has purportedly suggested “that antibiotic exposure during a critical window of early development disrupts the bacterial landscape of the gut, home to trillions of diverse microbes, and permanently reprograms the body’s metabolism, setting up a predisposition to obesity.” Laura Cox, et al., “Altering the Intestinal Microbiota during a Critical Developmental Window Has Lasting Metabolic Consequences,” Cell, August 2014. Researchers with New York University’s (NYU’s) Langone Medical Center apparently used low-dose penicillin (LDP) to disrupt the gut microbiota of mice in the week before birth or immediately after weaning to measure the life-long metabolic effects. The results evidently showed that mice receiving LDP in the womb and early in life had increased fat mass compared with mice that received no antibiotics at all. “When we put mice on a high-calorie diet, they got fat. When we put mice on antibiotics, they got fat,” reported lead…
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund has published a white paper titled “Ending the Overuse of Antibiotics in Livestock Production: The Case for Reform.” Contending that the use of antibiotics in healthy animals to accelerate their growth or “prevent disease caused by unhealthy and unsanitary conditions” has accelerated the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the paper calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to act immediately to restrict the use of antibiotics in livestock production. According to the consumer-interest group’s paper, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that some 2 million Americans are sickened each year by drug-resistant bacteria, and of those, 23,000 die. The paper also states that more than “70% of antibiotics in classes used in human medicine are sold for use in food animals.” FDA data reportedly indicate that in 2011, 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics were sold in the…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released an executive report summarizing the data collected by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) since 1996. Implemented by FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, NARMS tracks antibiotic resistance in foodborne bacteria, focusing on antibiotics “that are considered important to human health as well as multidrug resistance [MDR]” to three or more antibiotic classes. According to an August 11, 2014, news release, FDA identified “positive and negative trends in antimicrobial resistance in bacteria isolated from humans, retail meats and food animals.” For non-typhoidal Salmonella, which showed no resistance in 85 percent of samples isolated from humans, the report found that “MDR among humans, slaughtered chicken and slaughtered swine was the lowest [in 2011] since testing began,” though “MDR Salmonella from retail poultry meats generally increased.” NARMS also concluded that “erythromycin resistance in Campylobacter jejuni…
U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have written a July 28, 2014, letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, requesting additional information about how the agency plans to implement and evaluate new policies designed to combat the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Noting that “four times as many antibiotics are used in food animal production as are used in human medicine,” the senators praise recent guidance intended to curtail the routine use of these drugs to promote animal growth, but question whether these measures go far enough. “We remain concerned, however, that many of the remaining approved uses of antibiotics to contain and prevent diseases are not strictly defined, and still allow for the continuous administration of low doses of antibiotics,” they write, pointing to loosely-worded guidelines that approve antibiotics to prevent or contain disease “in times of stress.” In particular, the…
The Second Circuit has reversed a district court’s decision that ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to initiate hearings responding to a livestock antibiotics challenge from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based on a 1977 agency finding that the use of growth antibiotics for healthy animals was unsafe. NRDC v. FDA, No. 12-2106 (2d Cir., order entered July 24, 2014). Two judges were “firmly persuaded that Congress has not required the FDA to hold hearings whenever FDA officials have scientific concerns about the safety of animal drug usage,” that FDA has discretion on proceedings to withdraw approval of animal drugs, and that the law requires “withdrawal of approval of animal drugs or particular uses of such drugs only when the FDA has made a final determination, after notice and hearing, that the drug could pose a threat to human health and safety.” In 1977, FDA planned to…
The American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted a resolution pressing the federal government to prohibit the use of antibiotics in farm feed for the purpose of growth promotion in response to the rapid development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. David Wallinga, a physician on the Keep Antibiotics Working steering committee, said that overuse of antibiotics has driven resistant bacteria to develop more quickly, and “[a]s much as 70 percent of the use in agriculture is unnecessary or overuse.” Replacing a previous policy that discouraged the use of anti-microbials for non-therapeutic use in agriculture, Resolution 513 states that the AMA will (i) “support federal efforts to ban antibiotic use in food-producing animals for growth promotion purposes, including through regulatory and legislative measures”; (ii) “support a strong federal requirement that antibiotic prescriptions for animals be overseen by a veterinarian”; and (iii) “support efforts to expand [Food and Drug Administration] surveillance and data collection of…
Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) have introduced the Pathogens Reduction and Testing Reform Act, which would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue food recalls for meat contaminated with antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as Salmonella. Citing better protections for consumers and past deference to voluntary recalls as support for their bill, the lawmakers argue in a prepared statement that “USDA has failed to recall meat contaminated with antibiotic-resistant pathogens because they do not believe they have the legal authority to do so. This bill would ensure there is no confusion.” The measure would require USDA to recall meat, poultry and egg products contaminated by illness-causing pathogens resistant to two or more classes of antibiotics commonly used to treat human illnesses. See The Washington Post, June 25, 2014. Issue 528
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a complaint against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food Safety and Inspection Service, seeking a declaration that the agencies have unreasonably delayed taking action on its May 2011 petition requesting that certain strains of antibiotic-resistant (ABR) Salmonella in ground meat and poultry be declared adulterants. CSPI v. Vilsack, No. 14-895 (D.D.C., filed May 28, 2014). Details about CSPI’s petition appear in Issue 396 of this Update. According to the nutrition and health advocacy organization, if these pathogens are declared adulterants, affected meat and poultry products would be barred from entering commerce, and the action “would also confirm the agency’s authority to request without evidence of illness that a company recall products containing ABR Salmonella, or—in the absence of a company’s voluntary compliance—to detain and seize those products.” The complaint refers to a number of Salmonella outbreaks, some involving…
