To: Margaret Hamburg, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner
Stop the Overuse of Antibiotics on Factory Farms
CoPIRG
The overuse of antibiotics on factory farms is putting public health at risk.
80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for animals. Many big farming operations put antibiotics into the daily feed of all their livestock, sick or not. The result? Bacteria that come into contact with these animals, mutate, and become resistant to antibiotics, undermining the effectiveness of life-saving drugs for all of us.
Please stand up for public health and stop the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms.
80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for animals. Many big farming operations put antibiotics into the daily feed of all their livestock, sick or not. The result? Bacteria that come into contact with these animals, mutate, and become resistant to antibiotics, undermining the effectiveness of life-saving drugs for all of us.
Please stand up for public health and stop the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms.
Why is this important?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year more than two million people are hospitalized and 23,000 die because they have been infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
We're now in danger of returning to an age when simple infections are potentially fatal. Our decision-makers need to hear from the public, and it needs to happen quickly. That’s why we've launched a campaign to stop the overuse of antibiotics where the problem is the worst -- on factory farms that mix antibiotics right into the feed of healthy animals. In fact, 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for animals.
The result? Bacteria that come into contact with these animals mutate and become resistant to antibiotics, and the infections these bacteria cause -- everything from pneumonia to MRSA -- become harder and harder to treat.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to stop the worst overuse of antibiotics on factory farms. Please join us in calling on the FDA to act now.
We're now in danger of returning to an age when simple infections are potentially fatal. Our decision-makers need to hear from the public, and it needs to happen quickly. That’s why we've launched a campaign to stop the overuse of antibiotics where the problem is the worst -- on factory farms that mix antibiotics right into the feed of healthy animals. In fact, 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for animals.
The result? Bacteria that come into contact with these animals mutate and become resistant to antibiotics, and the infections these bacteria cause -- everything from pneumonia to MRSA -- become harder and harder to treat.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to stop the worst overuse of antibiotics on factory farms. Please join us in calling on the FDA to act now.