From: Steve Leuty [SCLEUT@kalcounty.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 11:50 AM
To: EXECSEC
Subject: antibiotic use in livestock

January 10, 2001

Jane E. Henney, M.D.
Commissioner
U. S. Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville MD 20857-0001

Commissioner Jane Henney,

The rise in antibiotic resistance is slowly eliminating the effectiveness of these drugs for treating infectious diseases in people.  While the misuse of antibiotics in human medicine is the larger contributor to the problem, there is agreement among public health experts that the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is also impacting human health by contributing to the rise in drug-resistant microorganisms.

A recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists indicates a very concerning overuse of antibiotics in the three major livestock sectors for nontherapeutic purposes such as growth promotion.

But while there is growing acceptance of the causes of antibiotic resistance, there are few publicly available data on the quantity of antibiotics used in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recognized the need for collecting such information, but it has not taken steps to establish the needed system. As a result, the FDA should move now to establish a system for collecting basic data on agricultural antibiotic use in the United States.  The information should be collected for both human and agricultural use and should include the class,
indication, dosage, and treatment period.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these concerns. I look forward to receiving a reply with an update on how FDA will address this problem.

Concerned citizen,

Steve Leuty
205 S. Lauderdale Dr.
Kalamazoo MI 49006
(616) 345-6981