Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask] Roy Overton is a retired doctor, and an activist and lobbyist for Izaak Walton League. ---------- From: Roy Overton <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Fw: antimicrobial growth promoters Date: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 10:45 PM F Y I....Fellow Ikes and members of the Environmental Health committee....this challenge ahead of us about using antibiotics prohylactically in feeds to animals is important to humans also, with resistances and cross-resistances with drugs used for humans....also, these resistant organisims have a way of getting to humans on catheters, heart valves and artificial vessels etc. We must always remember that inappropriate use of antibiotics by doctors....for inappropriate diagnosis, improper length of time, improper doseages etc. is a common problem also We may wonder at times how this fits with the Ike's issues, but this is very important in our environment...as important as inappropriate use of AG chemicals and polluted water. roy overton MD....chair of the environmental health committee of the national ikes. -----Original Message----- From: kywaters <[log in to unmask]> To: CWA feedlots <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 1:45 AM Subject: antimicrobial growth promoters http://id.medscape.com/govmt/CDC/EID/1999/v05.n03/e0503.03.wege/e0503.03.weg e-01.html From Emerging Infectious Diseases Use of Antimicrobial Growth Promoters in Food Animals and Enterococcus faecium Resistance to Therapeutic Antimicrobial Drugs in Europe Henrik C. Wegener, Frank M. Aarestrup, Lars Bogų Jensen, Anette M. Hammerum, and Flemming Bager, Danish Veterinary Laboratory, Copenhagen, Denmark ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Abstract Supplementing animal feed with antimicrobial agents to enhance growth has been common practice for more than 30 years and is estimated to constitute more than half the total antimicrobial use worldwide. The potential public health consequences of this use have been debated; however, until recently, clear evidence of a health risk was not available. Accumulating evidence now indicates that the use of the glycopeptide avoparcin as a growth promoter has created in food animals a major reservoir of Enterococcus faecium, which contains the high level glycopeptide resistance determinant vanA, located on the Tn1546 transposon. Furthermore, glycopeptide-resistant strains, as well as resistance determinants, can be transmitted from animals to humans. Two antimicrobial classes expected to provide the future therapeutic options for treatment of infections with vancomycin-resistant enterococci have analogues among the growth promoters, and a huge animal reservoir of resistant E. faecium has already been created, posing a new public health problem. [Emerging Infectious Diseases 5(3), 1999. Centers for Disease Control] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]