Protect Antibiotics Action Center

• Issue
• Take Action on Antibiotics
• Protect Antibiotics Toolkit
• Other HCWH Resources
• Medical Association Policies
• Other Resources

Issue

Of all the antibiotics consumed each year in the U.S. only an estimated 15 percent are used for human therapy. The bulk of the remaining antibiotics, an estimated 70 percent, are routinely given to poultry, beef cattle, and swine in their feed, not to treat diagnosed disease, but to promote faster growth and for routine disease prevention (i.e. to compensate for the heightened risk of infection in raising animals under confined, often unhygienic conditions). Many such feed antibiotics are identical or very nearly so to human medicines, including penicillin, tetracycline, erythromycin and sulfa drugs.

This currently legal, routine and unnecessary use of antibiotics in animal agriculture contributes significantly to the rise in resistant bacterial infections in humans. Numerous health organizations including the American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Health Care Without Harm have called for an end to this practice. In 2003, the U.S. Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Science stated that decreasing "antimicrobial use in human medicine alone will have little effect on the current [antibiotic-resistant] situation" and that "substantial efforts must be made to decrease inappropriate overuse [of antibiotics] in animals and agriculture."

This website was created as a resource for the health care community to learn about agricultural antibiotic overuse and to take action.

Take Action on Antibiotics

• Add your name to the Health Practitioner Petition and support the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009 (PAMTA)(S. 619, H.R. 1549). PAMTA is federal legislation currently introduced in Congress that would end the use of important human antibiotics in the feed and water of animals that are not sick. (For a summary, full text, status or current list of cosponsors go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and search by bill number.)
• Add your organization to the list of Hospitals and Health Systems in Support of PAMTA. Contact Jamie Harvie at info AT isfusa.org for more information.
• Work with Nurse colleagues and share the Nurses Protect Antibiotics Toolkit.
• Urge your hospital or health system to buy poultry and meat products from producers that prohibit or place meaningful limits on the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture (USDA Organic, Certified Humane Raised and Handled, Food Alliance Certified, Animal Welfare Approved, certified American Grassfed or poultry and meats labeled as "Raised Without Antibiotics.") Check back here for examples of hospitals sourcing sustainably-produced meats. [coming soon]

Other HCWH Resources

• Antibiotics Used in Animal Agriculture (mp3)
  Audio of July 13, 2010 HCWH/PEW Press Conference
• Policy Statement on Antibiotics in Food (pdf)
• Antibiotic Resistance Factsheet (pdf)
• Antibiotics, Animal Agriculture and MRSA (pdf)
• Food Eco-Labels: A Purchasing Guide  (pdf)
• Purchaser's Guide to Sourcing Sustainable Poultry (pdf)
• Guide to Poultry Applicable Eco-labels  (pdf)
• Sample Poultry Supplier Survey Questions (pdf)

Medical Association Policies

• California Medical Association Resolution 705-07:
  Improving Health Through Sustainable Food Purchasing (pdf)
• American Nurses Assoc. 2008 House of Delegates Res.:
  Healthy Food in Health Care (pdf)
• American Public Health Association Policy Statement
  Toward a Healthy, Sustainable Food System (pdf)
• Minn. Acad. of Family Practitioners (MAFP) resources:
  Letter to Hospital CEOs (pdf) on
  Healthy Food Service Policies and Practices
  Food Services Practices Survey (pdf)

Other Resources

• Institute of Medicine, Board on Global Health,
  Microbial Threats to Health
  Emergence, Detection, and Response
  Washington, D.C., National Academy of
  Sciences Press (2003)
• Joint WHO/FAO/OIE Expert Workshop on
  Non-human Antimicrobial Usage and
  Antimicrobial Resistance (Exec. Sum.)
  Geneva, 1 - 5 December 2003.
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
  Background on Antibiotic Resistance
• Antimicrobial Resistance of Old and Recent Staphylococcus aureus Isolates
  from Poultry: First Detection of Livestock-Associated
  Methicillin-Resistant Strain ST398, October 2008
• Testimony before the House Committee on Rules on
  The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical
  Treatment Act (H.R. 1549) (pdf)