From: Steven Wilkinson [swilki@attglobal.net]
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2001 2:24 PM
To: EXECSEC
Subject: Antibiotic Use in Agriculture

Dear Ms. Henney,

I am writing to encourage your establishment of a reporting system to
determine the quantity of antibiotics used in United States'
agriculture.  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.

Please make this system a priority.  Thank you.

Steven E. Wilkinson.