Sierra Club Action Daily
     Vol II, #118
     July 23, 1999

     "Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness
     without action."
     -Benjamin Disraeli

     TAKE ACTION: CAFO's

     Unnecessary Use of Drugs at Factory Farms Threatens Public Health
     Tell the FDA to Ban the Use of Antibiotics As Livestock Growth
     Promoters

     The increased use of antibiotics to fatten hogs and poultry has gone
     hand-in-hand with the development of industrial-style livestock
     operations. Fifty million pounds of antibiotics are produced in the
     U.S. every year; 40% of that is given to animals, and 80% of what is
     given to animals is used to promote their growth.  With thousands of
     animals crammed into the tight quarters of a typical factory
     operation, antibiotics are dispensed constantly through the animals'
     feed.

     Using antibiotics as a feed additive to fatten livestock more quickly
     is making disease-causing bacteria more resistant to the drugs humans
     rely upon to treat tuberculosis, pneumonia, staph infections, and
     other life-threatening infectious diseases.

     Antibiotics are critical in treating infectious diseases.  But
     repeated exposure to the drugs enables resistant strains of bacteria
     to evolve.  Initially, some bacteria may be naturally resistant, and
     they survive treatment and multiply. When antibiotics are given again,
     more of the bacterial population may become resistant, and as that
     proportion increases over time, the drugs become less effective.  The
     more antibiotics we use, the more likely it is that bacteria will
     become resistant.   People are exposed to these antibiotic-resistant
     bacteria through the food supply and drinking water.

     Physicians are finding an increasing number of cases in which
     antibiotics are no longer curing diseases.  For example, as many as
     40% of strains of streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium that causes
     pneumonia and bloodstream and ear infections, are now resistant to
     penicillin and other commonly used antibiotics. Patients with
     antibiotic-resistant infections have died.  The Institute of Medicine,
     part of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated that annual cost
     of treating antibiotic resistant infections in the U.S. is $30
     billion.

     The World Health Organization called for a ban on using antibiotics to
     fatten livestock in 1997.  Since then, the Centers for Disease Control
     and Prevention, the American Public Health Association and other
     public health organizations have taken similar positions.  The
     European Union heeded these concerns last year when it banned adding
     human-use antibiotics to animal feed.

     Previous efforts to ban antibiotics as feed additives to fatten
     livestock have failed because of the opposition of the livestock
     industry and drug manufacturers.  Now the Food and Drug Administration
     is considering a new petition to ban the use of medically useful
     antibiotics as growth promoters. This action would be an important
     step in protecting the effectiveness of drugs used to treat human
     diseases and in stopping industrial-style livestock production.


     Please write FDA Commissioner Jane E. Henney to urge her to ban
     antibiotics as livestock growth promoters.  A sample letter follows:


     Dr. Jane E. Henney:
     Commissioner
     Food and Drug Administration
     5600 Fishers Lane, Room 14-71
     Rockville, MD 20857

     Dear Dr. Henney:

     Please end the use of antibiotics to promote livestock growth when
     those antibiotics are used to treat humans.  Jeopardizing the
     effectiveness of antibiotics essential for public health protection is
     a high price to pay to fatten hogs and poultry.

     As you know, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
     prominent public health organizations have expressed great concern
     about the massive use of antibiotics to increase livestock weight in
     light of the growing evidence of antibiotic resistance.  The United
     States should follow the example of the European Union, which banned
     adding human-use antibiotics to animal feed last year.

     Banning the use of antibiotics as livestock feed additives immediately
     would be an important step to ensuring that these critical drugs will
     continue to treat human diseases effectively.  Let's hope that
     antibiotic resistance does not grow into a public health crisis before
     the United States takes effective action to regulate the unnecessary
     use of these drugs in animal feeds.

     Sincerely,

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