Finally! FDA Told to Move on Antibiotic Use in Livestock By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today Published: March 23, 2012 A federal judge in New York City has ordered the FDA to start proceedings to revoke approvals for the use of antibiotics in livestock, a practice blamed for the spread of antibiotic-resistant "superbug" bacteria. In a case brought by five environmental and consumer advocacy groups, Judge Theodore Katz of the Southern District of New York ruled that the FDA had violated its own regulations when, in 1977, it identified risks to human health from widespread antibiotic treatment of livestock but then failed for nearly 35 years to take action.https://www.medpagetoday.com/[email protected]&mu_id=5504940 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012...ce-lawsuit-livestock_n_1375881.html?ref=green The U.S. Food and Drug Administration must act on scientific knowledge that the overuse of antibiotics in food animals has contributed to the rise of antibiotic-resistant infections in humans. This ruling made by a federal court on Thursday night now compels the FDA to withdraw approvals for most non-therapeutic uses of penicillin and tetracyclines in livestock, unless drugmakers are able to show that they are safe. Some of this misuse and overuse occurs in human medicine. But as HuffPost previously reported, cattle, swine, chickens and other livestock receive an estimated 80 percent of the nation's antibiotics
