US pork producers use six time more antibiotics than Danish

The USA uses about six times more antibiotics than Denmark to produce about 1 kg of meat, a Danish food official said in a presentation in Chicago, Illinois, earlier this week.

Press agency Bloomberg quotes Henrik Caspar Wegener, director of the National Food Institute in Denmark, who spoke earlier this week during a panel session at a conference in Chicago, Illinois.

By requiring prescriptions for all antibiotics, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can make more-informed decisions about how the antibiotics are used and provide them knowledge how a reduction can be achieved, he said. In addition, more data may help officials persuade the US meat-producing industry to change its practices, Wegener said.

Resistant infections in human medicine would cost the US more than $20 billion annually, a 2009 study reported.

At the moment, antibiotics are available by prescription, in an animal’s feed with the approval of a veterinarian, and over-the-counter without a prescription. The FDA issued draft guidance in the end of June, last year, that would require veterinarian approval for all antibiotics, eliminating over-the-counter availability. The guidance isn’t yet final.

More difficult
Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian at the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), told Bloomberg she agreed with the call for more surveillance. She added, however, that requiring prescriptions would be more difficult in the USA than in Denmark, due to the US’s larger size and less homogeneous population, making tracking difficult.

GAO report
Monitoring however has become more likely recently, as a report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) gave the issue new prominence. It advised the FDA to work with antibtiocs producing companies on a voluntary basis to increase veterinary supervision of antibiotics.

Data collected so far ‘lack crucial details necessary to examine trends and understand the relationship between use and resistance’, the report said.

Wegener said he met with GAO investigators in Denmark, and the investigators also talked with farmers and veterinarians. “We had a lengthy discussion about the situation in Demark,” Wegener said. “I just wonder if there is the political will to change anything about antibiotic use in the US.”

Related weblog:
• A little word of comfort (Sept 19, 2011)

Related websites:
• Bloomberg
• National Pork Producers Council (NPPC)