Drafter
Clerk 06/04/2015
Title
A MOTION in support of a statewide and national ban on nontherapeutic uses of antibiotics in livestock production.
Body
WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 23,000 people die from antibiotic-resistant infections each year, and
WHEREAS, antibiotics have been used for the last seventy years to treat people with infections, are effective against bacteria and are among the most-commonly prescribed drugs used in human medicine, and
WHEREAS, antibiotics have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms that the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to a growing number of them, making the drugs ineffective or less effective, and
WHEREAS, as antibiotic resistance increases, physicians have fewer effective drugs to treat patients, and
WHEREAS, scientists have provided strong evidence that antibiotic use in food animals can lead to drug-resistant infections in humans, and
WHEREAS, any overuse or misuse of antibiotics, whether in human medicine or in agriculture, contributes to the spread of antibiotic resistance, and
WHEREAS, eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States are used in livestock production. When animals are given antibiotics for growth promotion, to increase feed efficiency or to routinely prevent disease in unhealthy conditions, this nontherapeutic low-level exposure to antibiotics may be particularly conducive to the survival and growth of drug resistant bacteria, and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently working with drug makers to implement a voluntary policy to eliminate approved growth-promoting uses in food animals of those antibiotics that are used in human medicine and to improve veterinary oversight of all in-feed and water uses of those drugs, and
WHEREAS, antibiotics should be used appropriately based on the best available evidence and taking into account public health and the need to prevent em...

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