Many federal cafeterias will start serving meat and poultry from animals raised with fewer antibiotics in an effort to halt increases in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, President Obama said Tuesday.
The directive, announced at a White House summit to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as 'superbugs,' will be phased in over five years. Such superbugs, bacteria that have evolved to become immune to even the most powerful medications, kill 23,000 Americans a year and sicken 2 million. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has identified superbugs as one of the few public health problems that are getting worse.
Mae Wu, a health attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised the White House's move. "For the first time, the federal government is flexing its considerable purchasing power muscle to help build the market for meat and poultry produced with the so-called 'responsible' use of antibiotics," Wu said in a statement.
Obama released a National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in March. At the summit, several hospitals and health companies committed to following CDC's prescribing guideline and to reduce antibiotic misuse. For example, Intermountain Healthcare pledged to cut antibiotic use for upper respiratory conditions in half by 2020. These infections -- which include ear and sinus infections -- are often caused by viruses, not bacteria, so antibiotics are useless against them.
The Food and Drug Administration announced final rules regulating how veterinarians may prescribe antibiotics in livestock.
Food producers have long been criticized for overusing antibiotics, using them broadly to fatten up animals or prevent disease, even when the animals aren't sick. About 80% of antibiotics sold today are used on animals, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Several food producers announced changes Monday aimed at reducing antibiotic resistance.
- Foster Farms said it has stopped treating chickens with antibiotics that are critical for use in people and will work toward eliminating use of all antibiotics used in humans. The company's chickens were blamed for an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella that sickened 634 people, hospitalizing 38% of patients, in 2013 and 2014.
- Tyson Foods Inc. pledged to eliminate the use of human antibiotics from its broiler chickens by September 2017, according to the White House. The company also will work with others in its supply chain to reduce antibiotics in cattle, hogs and turkeys.
- Smithfield, a major ham producer, has prohibited the use of "medically important" antibiotics to promote growth.
- Walmart has asked its supplier to limit their use of antibiotics to animals that are ill or at risk of disease.
Some consumer groups weren't satisfied.