Health Advocates and Online Activists Sue FDA Over Antibiotics in Livestock

A coalition of public health advocacy groups and online activists have filed a lawsuit against the FDA and its Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), challenging the decision to keep important antibiotics in animal agriculture.

The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 24 by the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Public Citizen, claims the FDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it denied a 2016 petition by the groups to ban the use of medically important antibiotics for disease prevention in livestock and poultry.

The FDA denied the petition in 2021, despite, according to the lawsuit, generally agreeing that the overuse of antibiotics in food-producing animals can contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota wrote. The lawsuit says the agency did not address the petition's core concern that the use of antibiotics for disease prevention in livestock and poultry poses a significant threat to human health.

The groups claim the "misuse of these medicines has contributed to the rise and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria–a growing public health crisis responsible for 35,000 deaths and over 2.8 million cases of illness each year in the United States."

Domestic sales and distribution of medically important antimicrobial drugs approved for use in food-producing animals decreased by less than 1% between 2020 and 2021. Since the significant decrease in sales volume in 2017, annual sales of medically important antimicrobials have remained at reduced levels, according to the U.S. FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine's (CVM) 2021 Summary Report on Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food-Producing Animals. Compared to 2015 (peak year of sales), 2021 sales decreased 38%.

Read more:

FDA Publishes 2021 Report on Antimicrobial Use in Livestock