United States:

• Food and Drug Administration:

  • approved use of antibiotics as feed additives for farm animals in 1951.

  • approved use of fluoroquinolone antibiotic for poultry in 1995.

• Center for Disease Control: collecting data on foodborne diseases.

• National Research Council/Institute of Medicine: released report in May, 1998 indicating that more research and awareness is needed to handle the increase in antibiotic resistance.

• Center for Science in the Public Interest: alleges that the use of antibiotics by livestock industry significantly contributes to antibiotic resistance.

• Animal Health Institute: agrees with other organizations that antibiotic resistance is a serious problem, but does not find the current data conclusive enough to support a ban of antibiotic use in livestock.

Other Countries:

• United Kingdom: recommended antibiotics not be used as growth promoters in livestock if it increased the risk of resistance in 1969.

• Sweden: banned the use of antibiotics to promote livestock growth in 1986. Since then, the total use of antibiotics in livestock has decreased 55%.

• Belgium, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, the Netherlands, and Spain monitor antimicrobial resistance in both humans and livestock.

World Organizations

• European Union: banned use of avoparcin as a growth promoter in livestock starting 1 April 1997.

• World Health Organization: recommended that antibiotics not be used as livestock growth promoters if it increases the risk to human health in 1997.

• Sentry Antimicrobial Surveillance: tracking spread of bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance globally. This is a joint program between the University of Iowa and the Eijkman-Winkler Institute for Microbiology Infection and Inflammation of the Netherlands.