U.S., Canada lags EU on antibiotic policy: report

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Published: December 7, 2017

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) — Canada and the United States are falling behind Europe in the fight to curb the overuse of antibiotics in meat production, according to a recent report, and experts warn that could cause dangerous drug-resistant infections.

The report by the investor group Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return, said the U.S. restricts the use of antibiotics only for growth promotion.

The World Health Organization said the farm sector consumes about 80 percent of all medically important antibiotics in some countries. Meat producers around the world have used such drugs to prevent disease in healthy animals and to speed growth.

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WHO recently recommended eliminating both of those practices, saying they contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The European Union has banned farms from administering antibiotics to livestock without a veterinarian’s prescription or to boost growth. Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands go further by discouraging routine antibiotic use for disease prevention.

There has been some movement on the issue in North America as companies move to reduce or eliminate medically important antibiotics from their poultry supply chains.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture criticized the new WHO antibiotic guidelines for farmers, saying they “are not in alignment with U.S. policy and are not supported by sound science.”

The states of California and Maryland on Jan. 1 will enact antibiotic laws that go further than the U.S. federal government’s by phasing out the regular use of medically important antibiotics for disease prevention.

In October, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to require large grocery stores to report on antibiotic use by their meat suppliers.

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