The Use of Drugs in Food Animals Benefits and Risks (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
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Food animals convert one form of nutrient (usually grain or lignocellulosic feed such as grass, hay, or silage) to another form that differs in amino acid content, nutrient composition, and general nutritional benefit.
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The National Research Council assigned the task to the Board on Agriculture, which, through the Panel on Animal Health, Food Safety, and Public Health -- a joint panel with the Institute of Medicine -- convened the Committee on Drug Use in Food Animals. The committee was charged with reviewing, evaluating, and making recommendations related to the need for drugs and their availability and accountability in agriculture, the benefits and risks to human health and food safety associated with food-animal drugs, the development of food-animal drugs and the process of approval of their use, and the emerging trends in animal health care and the availability of alternative management practices for raising food animals.
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THE COMMITTEE PROCESS The committee reviewed the major classes of drugs used in food animals, focusing on the potential effect of drugs used both for human and for animal health. The committee conducted a review of the scientific literature; heard testimony on animal-drug-related issues; and reviewed federal regulations that provide guidelines and list mandatory practices for drug use, monitoring capabilities for drugs and residues in foods, veterinary oversight in prescription drug use, rates of violations, and instances of documented health problems.
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There is substantial food-animal industry concern that the unavailability of approved antibiotics compromises food-animal production practices in the United States. Many producers believe that, without more antibiotic choices, current production capacity and economic return might not be maintained, animal wellbeing could decline, and human health could be affected.
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provides a valid and needed reference for practicing veterinarians with regard to the implementation and success of AMDUCA. Through FARAD, veterinarians can obtain information on specific veterinary and nonveterinary drugs for treating sick animals and recommend appropriate dosing and withdrawal times.
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To judge by the few detected incidents of illegal drug residues in milk, eggs, or meat, the health risk posed by drug residues in foods is minimal and specific. RESISTANCE TO ANTIBIOTIC DRUGS With an effective residue-monitoring system in place, the dominant issue in the use of drugs in food animals is the microbial acquisition of resistance to
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Resistance emergence should be classified with regard to each antibiotic used, the concentration and dosage administered, the blood and tissue concentrations attained, the bacterial species or strain affected, and the animal species in which the drug is used. A specific data-driven link should be available to substantiate that the use of an antibiotic at a particular dosage not only promotes resistance but also poses a disease threat to other animals or humans.
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• A major impediment to determining the effect of antibiotic use in food animals on human health risk is the complexity of food-animal drug treatment and subsequent food-processing and handling interactions. Data suggest that most human disease scenarios associated with food-animal pathogens are related to enteric diseases contracted principally through consumption of pathogen-contaminated foods.
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Finally, although conservative measures in the food-animal drug approval process might be prudent, until these questions are answered definitely, the quest for new antibiotics for use in food animals must continue. Mechanisms must be instituted to increase research funding to discover new mechanisms of antibiotic drug action; to increase and expedite FDA approvals of new drugs; to provide base funding for the aspects of long-term experimental resistance emergence research and surveillance research that are not likely to be funded by short-term competitive grants; and to develop more precise, accurate, and rapid tests of microbial, pathogenic, and antibiotic-resistant organisms for monitoring purposes.
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• The committee recommends that, to improve drug availability, worldwide harmonization of requirements for drug development and review be considered and further enhanced among the federal agencies that are responsible for ensuring the safety of the food supply. • The committee recommends that the Center for Veterinary Medicine base drug use guidelines on maximal safe dosage regimens for specific food animals, consider greater emphasis on the pharmacokinetics of drug elimination from tissues that are consumed in large quantity, and set drug withdrawal times accordingly.
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Alternatives to Drug Use in Food Animals • The committee recommends increased public- and private-sector research on the effect of nutrition and management practices on immune function and disease resistance in all species of food animals. • The committee recommends increased public- and private-sector research on strategies for the development of new vaccination techniques, on a better understanding of the biochemical basis of antibody production, and on genetic selection and molecular genetic engineering for disease resistance.
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