Washington, DC - Keep Antibiotics Working: The Campaign to End
Antibiotic Overuse— today sent letters to McDonald's, Wendy's
and Popeyes applauding the companies for refusing to buy
chicken treated with fluoroquinolone antibiotics, as reported
in The New York Times today.
"Thank you for taking this important step to provide your
customers with food raised in a way that helps keep these
critical antibiotics working for people who need them," the
letter said.
Keep Antibiotics Working also sent a letter today to the 30
U.S. restaurants that sell the largest quantities of chicken,
asking them to follow McDonald's, Wendy's and Popeyes lead.
In addition, Keep Antibiotics Working applauded the news
that chicken producers Tyson, Perdue and Foster Farms have told
The Times they have reduced the amounts of antibiotics
routinely fed to healthy chickens. However, the Keep
Antibiotics Working coalition cautioned that terminology about
agricultural antibiotic use can be confusing.
"We look forward to obtaining more information on the new
practices of Tyson, Perdue and Foster Farms," said Karen
Florini, senior attorney with Environmental Defense. "If these
changes are leading to a significant decrease in the use of
medically important antibiotics, that's welcome news indeed and
other poultry and livestock producers should promptly adopt
similar changes."
In October 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
proposed to ban the use of fluoroquinolones in poultry after
FDA scientists determined that such use contributes to
increasing numbers of people becoming infected with certain
antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause food poisoning.
Fluoroquinolones - a category of antibiotics that includes
Cipro - are the drugs of choice to treat severe cases of food
poisoning. Although one manufacturer immediately agreed to
comply with the FDA's proposed ban, the only other
manufacturer, Bayer Corporation, has contested the proposal. As
a result, Bayer's product (Baytril) remains on the market -
even though the American Medical Association and numerous other
health groups have urged Bayer to voluntarily end sales of
Baytril.
"Bayer's refusal to withdraw Baytril from the poultry market
compromises the effectiveness of fluoroquinolones, including
Cipro, for treating severe food poisoning in people. Bayer's
slogan is "Expertise with Responsibility." But Bayer has made
the irresponsible choice to put profits over public health,"
said Tamar Barlam, M.D., an infectious disease physician with
the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Inappropriate use of fluoroquinolones in poultry is one part
of a larger problem - the overuse of antibiotics in both human
medicine and animal agriculture. Unlike fluoroquinolone
antibiotics, which are approved for use in poultry only to
treat illness, a great majority of antibiotics used in
agriculture are given to healthy farm animals to promote growth
and prevent disease on overcrowded factory farms. This routine
feeding of antibiotics to healthy farm animals comprises an
estimated 70% of the total amount of antibiotics used in the
U.S. each year. Overuse of antibiotics spurs bacteria to
develop antibiotic resistance, making it harder - or even
impossible - to treat bacterial illnesses.
Keep Antibiotics Working is a coalition of health, consumer,
agricultural, environmental and other advocacy groups, with a
total of more than nine million members, dedicated to
curtailing the inappropriate use of antibiotics in farm
animals. The Humane Society of the United States is a
member.
