From: EXECSEC Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 12:50 PM To: Dockets, FDA Subject: FW: End Use of Human Antibiotics in Livestock Feed > ---------- > From: Henney, Jane > Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 12:50:24 PM > To: EXECSEC > Subject: FW: End Use of Human Antibiotics in Livestock Feed > Auto forwarded by a Rule > > > > ---------- > From: catherine_livingston@student.hms.harvard.edu[SMTP:CATHERINE_LIVINGSTON@STUDENT.HMS.HARVARD.EDU] > Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2001 12:45:52 PM > To: jhenney@oc.fda.gov > Subject: End Use of Human Antibiotics in Livestock Feed > Auto forwarded by a Rule > Cat Livingston 17 Chilcott Place 3 Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 catherine_livingston@student.hms.harvard.edu Dear Dr. Henney, I am writing in support of Petition 99P-0485 to urge you to ban medically useful antibiotics from livestock feed. For decades, livestock producers have fed human antibiotics to hogs, cows and poultry to speed their growth or counteract the effects of crowded living conditions and poor hygiene. 40% of antibiotics manufactured in the United States are in animal feed. These sub-therapeutic long-term doses result in bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Scientists, health organizations and governments around the world are urging that antibiotics not be squandered on fattening livestock. The World Health Organization recommended that antibiotics used to treat humans not be used to promote animal growth. The GAO reported that "research has linked three diseases with antibiotic-resistant strains affecting humans to the use of antibiotics in animals;" and the European Union has already banned human antibiotics in animal feed. I urge you not to allow an antibiotic to be used in livestock feed if that antibiotic is used in human medicine. I further encourage you to support measures to decrease antibiotic use in livestock in general. Multi-drug resistant infections in humans exist in much higher numbers surrounding livestock farms that use antibiotics for their livestock. It is quickly depleting the effectivess of the antibiotics that we have and is contributing on an exponential level to the resistance of bacteria and the loss of effective therapeutic measures. Please tell me how you plan to address this. Sincerely, Cat Livingston Harvard Medical School Cat Livingston