FDA calls for urgent work on the over-use of antibiotics
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has released a statement this week in the wake of damning results in the use of antibiotics within the food industry. More specifically, the statement has outlined the ‘added urgency’ in the fight against the over-use of antibiotics in the meat industry.
On Tuesday 10th December, the FDA released the sales of medically important antibiotics for the use of food producing animals which revealed that sales had risen by 9% between 2017 and 2018. This is the first time in three years that the sale of these kind of antibiotics have risen.
The FDA have stated that although the sales remain down from historic highs, it is still concerning that the recent years decline appears to have been a false calling and that the new figures may accurately represent the usage of medically important drugs in the industry.
Overall in 2018, antibiotic sales for pig rose the highest to more than 17% from 2017, with cattle also seeing an increase of 8%. It is has also stated that the biggest proportion of increase has come from the sale of tetracyclines in swine and cattle. The US Poultry industry however, has seen the best results with a 17% decline in the use of antibiotics after the sector called for the elimination of the routine use of these drugs.
The FDA concluded their statement by saying, “The agency’s aim is not simply measured by a reduction in sales volume of antimicrobials, but also includes fostering good antimicrobial stewardship practices by optimising the use of these products and limiting their use in animals to only when necessary to treat, control, or prevent disease”.
Randox Food Diagnostics
With over 35 years’ experience within the diagnostics industry, Randox Food Diagnostics provide the highest quality products, customer service and technical support to ensure the needs of our global customer base are met.
Our dedicated research and development team have created our Biochip Array Technology to provide reliable and economical testing methods that monitor multiple drug residues in meat from a single sample, saving time, money and labour costs. Arrays include screening for residues of antimicrobials, growth promoting compounds, anthelmintics and coccidiostats and the detection of tetracyclines as mentioned in this article.
Randox Food Diagnostics also provide a vast variety of ELISA kits to test for antibiotics in tissue, offering excellent cross-reactivity and unrivalled limits of detection. With results providing great correlation with confirmatory methods, we ensure that better science means safer food.
Links
For more information on our tissue screening methods such please visit: www.randoxfood.com/meat-and-seafood-analysis/ or alternatively contact us via email: info@randoxfooddiagnostics.com
For more information on FDA article please visit: https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/cvm-updates/fda-releases-annual-summary-report-antimicrobials-sold-or-distributed-2018-use-food-producing