From: Henney, Jane Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 9:30 PM To: EXECSEC Subject: FW: End Use of Human Antibiotics in Livestock Feed > ---------- > From: mestone@snowcrest.net[SMTP:MESTONE@SNOWCREST.NET] > Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 9:30:42 PM > To: jhenney@oc.fda.gov > Cc: mestone@snowcrest.net > Subject: End Use of Human Antibiotics in Livestock Feed > Auto forwarded by a Rule > mary stone 11800 hart rd montague, CA 96064 mestone@snowcrest.net Dear Dr. Henney, My name is Mary E. Stone and I am writing in support of Petition 99P-0485 to urge you to ban medically useful antibiotics from livestock feed. I send this request to you on behalf of my whole family: my husband, my children, my parents, my brothers and their families, my sister and her family. Our concern about the quality of the food, and particularly meat, in our grocery stores has made shopping and preparing meals for our families a depressing nightmare. Your decision on this matter will demonstrate the seriousness with which you honor your responsibility to protect my family, and all families, from health threatening foods. 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. In fact, about one third of the antibiotics manufactured in the United States each year ends up in animal feed. Mounting evidence has proven that the overuse of antibiotics for livestock makes the drugs less effective for humans. 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. Please tell me how you plan to address this looming health crisis. Sincerely, mary stone