Antibiotics Sales to Farms Up 23 Percent Since 2009

According to newly released federal data, sales of medically important antimicrobials used in food-producing animals in the U.S. increased by 3 percent in 2014 and by 23 percent between 2009 and 2014.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its summary of the information animal drug sponsors are required by the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA) to report every year.  In 2014, domestic sales and distribution of medically important antimicrobials accounted for 62 percent of all antimicrobials approved for use in food animals. Tetracyclines accounted for 70 percent of these sales, penicillins for 9 percent, macrolides for 7 percent, sulfas for 5 percent, aminoglycosides for 3 percent, lincosamides for 2 percent, and cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones for less than 1 percent each.  The 2014 findings reflect an ongoing trend, with rates of increase nearly the same as in 2013.  An ongoing issue with the ADUFA data for public health is that sales and distribution information is not directly correlated with how the drugs are actually used. In October, FDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a public meeting to discuss possible approaches for collecting additional on-farm antimicrobial drug use and resistance data.  (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)