Sen Booker Takes Aim at Proposed FDA Guidance on Agricultural Antibiotics

Jul 15, 2024

By Stephanie Soucheray

US Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that highlights concerns about revisions to FDA guidance on duration limits for antibiotic use in farm animals.

Booker is concerned about revisions to Guidance for Industry #152 (GFI#152) and draft Guidance for Industry #273 (draft GFI#273), which would eliminate a 21-day limit for medically important antimicrobials and instead allow the duration of use to be set on a case-by-case basis. Booker said that policy would contribute to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

'Breeding ground for AMR'

"A primary driver of the spread of antibiotic resistance is the misuse of antibiotics in industrial animal agriculture," Booker wrote in the letter. "Concentrated animal feeding operations create a breeding ground for AMR, due to their crowded conditions and the overreliance on antibiotics to keep animals healthy in an unsanitary and disease-promoting environment.”

Booker requested answers to six questions from the FDA by September 1, 2024, on its efforts to manage the growing crisis of AMR.

In his final question, Booker asked, "What is the FDA doing to measure its progress on combating antibiotic resistance? Has the FDA adopted any indicators of success such as a [sic] reductions in antibiotic use by livestock sectors and reductions in antibiotic resistance in food animal isolates?"

Source : umn.edu

Video: How Data Predicts Swine Outbreaks - Swaminathan Jayaraman

In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, Swaminathan Jayaraman, Research Assistant and PhD Candidate at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, explains how integrated data systems can improve disease surveillance in swine production. He discusses combining diagnostics, animal movement data, production records, and spatial analytics to identify risks earlier and support proactive decision-making for PRRS, PED, and swine influenza. Listen now on all major platforms!

"Disease surveillance remains largely reactive because outbreaks are often confirmed only after transmission has already occurred across multiple connected production sites."

Meet the guest: Swaminathan Jayaraman / swamjay is a Graduate Research Assistant at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine. With academic training in management information systems and engineering, he focuses on integrating diagnostic, production, and movement data to improve disease surveillance and decision support in swine production systems. Listen to Swaminathan Jayaraman on The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, available on all major platforms.