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Statement of CSPI Senior Food Safety Attorney David Plunkett

March 27, 2015

We must not continue to jeopardize the most important drugs in human medicine by recklessly squandering them on farm animals.

The Obama Administration's National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria highlights the importance of fighting antibiotic resistance, but misses a critical opportunity to effectively shrink the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. We applaud the Administration for calling on the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve surveillance of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella and Campylobacter. Missing from the plan, however, is a ban on all uses of antibiotics other than treating illnesses, any deadline for measuring effectiveness, and any direction on what steps should be taken if the current voluntary program fails to deliver on reducing on-farm antibiotic use.

CSPI has petitioned USDA to declare four strains of antibiotic resistant Salmonella as adulterants in meat and poultry. The Administration should act on that petition and otherwise take faster and stronger regulatory action. To cut through regulatory delays and overcome four decades' worth of industry opposition, Congress should pass strong legislation such as the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act or the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act.