::::::::
Congress passes antibiotic data collection legislationAt the end of July, Congress added an amendment to the Animal Drug User Fee Act that, for the first time, would require the Food and Drug Administration to collect data on the use of antibiotics in animal settings. These data can be used to devise responses to the emergence of diseases that are resistant to important human drugs. In addition, the Food and Farm Bill that Congress passed in June authorized new research on the judicious use of antibiotics in agriculture. Calls and letters from UCS activists helped push forward this important federal legislation. An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are regularly added to the feed of livestock and poultry that are not sick—a practice with serious consequences for our health. Congress still has not taken the most critical step to protect antibiotics: ending their routine use in animal agriculture. Please ask your members of Congress to support a bill that would do this, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act.
