The Hill News

The Food and Drug Administration’s long-awaited policy announcement on antibiotic use in food animals has accomplished an almost impossible Beltway feat â€" just about everyone’s happy about it.
 
The new policy aligns antibiotic use in animals and humans and eliminates the use of antibiotics as growth promoters, similar to the European ban on antibiotic growth promoters. The FDA’s new guidance requires that all medically important antibiotics used in animal agriculture be administered with the supervision of a licensed veterinarian for therapeutic purposes -- meaning disease treatment, control and prevention. Use for growth promotion will be phased out. Medicines will now be used in animal health much the same way they are by humans â€"to address disease and under the watchful eye of a licensed medical professional.

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