Avian-flu concerns push bans on drugs for animals

Environmental Defense and the IATP are part of a coalition of some 300 health, consumer, agricultural, and environmental groups called Keep Antibiotics Working: The Campaign to End Antibiotic Overuse. The coalition supports passage of legislation that would phase out the use of eight classes of antibiotics in farm animals except to treat disease. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) of Maine, would also authorize the government to collect statistics on antibiotic use in farm animals.

The FDA has acknowledged that antibiotic resistance is a problem, but it has been slow to act. Its proposal to ban the use of two types of antiviral drugs in chickens, turkeys, and ducks, however, came about quickly. Those drugs - developed to treat human cases of influenza - have never been approved for use in animals. But veterinarians are permitted to use them "extra-label" - for purposes other than those on their labels. The FDA ban aims to preserve the drugs' effectiveness in treating avian flu in humans. It is inviting comments on the proposed rule until May 22.

Last year, Chinese authorities admitted they used an older antiviral drug called amantadine to control or prevent avian flu outbreaks on chicken farms, but now say they have stopped the practice. Bird flu strains in Asia had begun to show resistance to amantadine.

Conceptually, the FDA is doing "the exact same thing" as banning antibiotics when it bans antivirals, Dr. Balbus says. "It's a recognition that massive use in agriculture of antimicrobial agents fosters the development of resistance in those animals and that there certainly are pathways between our agricultural animals and human populations."

The FDA has conceded that it knows of no use of antiviral drugs by American farmers but is taking the step as a precaution.

American poultry producers "have no interest" in ever using antiviral drugs, says Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council. "If we have an avian flu problem, we're not going to medicate the birds [with antivirals]. We're going to destroy them. That's our policy. The first order of business is to stamp out [avian flu] and prevent it from spreading to other flocks. And the only way to do that is to destroy the birds on that farm. So that's what will be done."

But antiviral drugs have been used already on horses to treat equine influenza, says Steve Roach, food safety program manager for the Food Animal Concerns Trust, a member group of the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition. "So it's not just a totally theoretical fear. Right now, we're just depending on [farmers'] good faith that they're not using them."

The Chicken Council also sees no need for legislation to ban antibiotics. "The trend has been toward lesser use of antibiotics over the years as flock health has improved and general animal husbandry, housing, and so forth of animals was improved," Mr. Lobb says. "All [antibiotic] usage within the industry is in accordance with FDA guidelines.... We think that is the appropriate way to go rather than the legislative route."

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