From: Kay C. Gabriel [kgabriel@facstaff.wisc.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 11:25 AM
To: EXECSEC

Jane E. Henney, M.D.
Commissioner
U. S. Food and Drug Administration

I am writing to urge you and incoming Bush administration officials 
at the FDA to establish a top priority reporting system to determine 
the quantity of antibiotics used in U.S. agriculture.

The rise in antibiotic resistance is slowly eliminating the 
effectiveness of these drugs for treating infectious diseases in 
people.  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 -
data that are necessary for scientists to explore the links between 
antibiotic use and the development of drug resistance and for 
developing rational strategies to curb use.

  The Union of Concerned Scientists has attempted to address this lack of data
by estimating antibiotic use in U.S. agriculture. The report 
estimates that a staggering 24.6 million pounds -roughly 70 percent 
of all antibiotic drugs - are fed to healthy cows, pigs, and chickens 
annually for non-therapeutic
purposes such as growth promotion.  Although they were devised by an 
indirect method, UCS's numbers are the best, most transparent 
estimate of agricultural antibiotic use available.  While they are 
good,they are not good enough.  Government-guaranteed information on 
U.S. antibiotic use is necessary for creating effective solutions for 
reducing antibiotic use.

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.


-- 
Kay C. Gabriel
Dept. of Bacteriology
1550 Linden Drive
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706
608-263-3263
fax: 608-262-9865
kgabriel@facstaff.wisc.edu