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-- FDA will require prescriptions for livestock antibiotics (http://forums.ukcdogs.com/showthread.php?threadid=496179)

FDA will require prescriptions for livestock antibiotics

quote:

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Farmers and ranchers will for the first time be required to get a prescription from a veterinarian before using antibiotics in cattle, pigs, chickens and other animals, federal food regulators announced Wednesday. Officials hope the move will slow the indiscriminate use of the drugs, which has made them increasingly ineffective in humans.

The Food and Drug Administration has been taking small steps to try to curb the use of antibiotics on farms, but federal officials said requiring prescriptions would lead to meaningful reductions in the agricultural use of antibiotics, which are given to promote animal growth.

The drug resistance that has developed from that practice has been a growing problem and has rendered a number of antibiotics used in humans less and less effective, with deadly consequences.

Initially, the FDA is asking drugmakers to voluntarily change their labels to require a prescription; federal officials said drugmakers had largely agreed to the change.

Michael Taylor, the agency's deputy commissioner for food, predicted that the new restrictions would save lives.

''We're confident that it will result in significant reductions in agricultural antibiotic use and reductions in resistance pressure" from dangerous bacteria," Taylor said. "That's why we're doing this."

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I ASSUME THIS ALSO INCLUDES DOGS???