Three United States senators think the ban on antibiotics as
growth promotants does not go far enough in limiting their use in the livestock
and poultry industries.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Dianne Feinstein and
Kirsten Gillibrand are asking the Food and Drug Administration for more
information, indicating that what they really want is a major reduction in the
on-farm use of antibiotics.
In Canada, Ron Doering, the first person to
serve as president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, has written that the
ban will likely do little to reduce antibiotic use because veterinarians will
still be able to prescribe them for disease-prevention purposes.
All that will change in the words “growth
promotant” to “disease prevention”.
That’s the nub of what the three senators are
asking of the Food and Drug Administration.
It grappled with the issue for decades and
finally announced a ban days after the major pharmaceutical companies announced
they would voluntarily remove growth promotion from their antibiotic-product
labels.
