From: Mary Jane Tate [mtate@tcsn.net]
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2001 12:38 PM
To: EXECSEC

                                                                                    3381 Oak Knoll Dr.
                                                                                    Paso Robles, Ca. 93446
                                                                                    January 15, 2001
Jane E. Henny, M.D.
Commissioner
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857-0001
 
Dear Commissioner Henny:  
     The increasing use of antibiotics in animal feed is of great concern to those of us with thoracic and bronchial weakness.  Suck illnesses very often develop pneumonia.  Then our only resource is an antibiotic.  The increasing use in animal feed is resulting in  a resistant antibiotic that could  become useless for combating pneumonia.
     In order to monitor the amount of antibiotics in use in agriculture, we need to hkave reliable data on its use in feeding stock in order to devise an effective national strategy to reduce antibiotic use.  We need to know the quantity of antibiotics in use in the United States in order to explore the links between antibiotic use and the growing resistance.  We also need to develop national plans for curbing its use.  You should move now to establish a system for finding basic data on animal  use that could be added to knowledge of the use in humans .We need this data in order to create effective solutions for reducing antibiotic use.
      Thank you, Commissioner Henney, for giving this your attention.
                                            Yours truly, 
                                              Mary Jane Tate