Webinar: FDA’s New Rules for Use of Antibiotics in Food Animals

February 4, 2014 — 

On Dec. 11, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced important steps to ensure the judicious use of antibiotics in food animals as one approach to addressing antimicrobial resistance in human medicine.

In an effort to clarify what this ruling means to livestock producers and other industry professionals, members of the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois offered a webinar on January 28, 2014 to address the new rules.

The discussion covered what the new steps mean to the livestock industry, what they don't mean, and how producers and others should respond. The webinar was presented by professor emeritus James Pettigrew, Extension swine veterinarian Larry Firkins, and professor Hans Stein.

The core of the FDA's approach includes:

1. No use of these antibiotics for production purposes (to improve growth rate or feed efficiency).
2. All uses of these antibiotics must be under veterinary oversight.
3. Disease prevention is specifically recognized as an approved judicious use of antibiotics.

The slides from the webinar are available as a PDF download. The archived video of the webinar is also available online.