Veterinarians debate antibiotics
Washington Ag Today September 2, 2009 Should livestock producers be able to administer antibiotics without a prescription? The mere suggestion that there should be more veterinarian control over antimicrobials sparked hours of debate at the annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Dr. Ron Dehaven is the CEO of the AVMA, which represents more than 80 percent of the nation’s veterinarians. Dehaven: “We think that one of the ways we can minimize, or ameliorate, some of the concerns about resistant bacteria is by ensuring greater oversight on the use of antibiotics in animals by veterinarians. The debate going on within AVMA is how do we ensure that based on a risk assessment, or based approach, how do we ensure the appropriate level of oversight by a veterinarian.” Dehaven thinks it is probably unnecessary for producers to obtain veterinary approval to treat food producing animals with drugs that are not given to given to people. Dehaven: “On the other hand if there is an antibiotic or another drug that is going to be used in animals that does have great importance in human medicine and there are some implications, then we probably need to have more direct oversight.” The AVMA is forming a task force to study its policy on this issue for a possible overhaul at next year’s meeting. In Congress the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act would restrict the use of antibiotics in livestock production. The AVMA has taken a strong stand against that legislation. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
