Dr. Richard Raymond, well-known in food safety and animal health circles, shared his thoughts about animal antibiotics in a recent commentary on Meatingplace. In it, he responded to an article with the headline, “FDA report shows antibiotic sales on the rise.” Raymond feels the organizations representing animal agriculture should do a better job of explaining to consumers and advocacy groups how well the industry is doing in terms of antibiotic management, citing category use and trends.
Source: Pork Network, April 1, 2016.
Tetracyclines, rarely used in human medicine, make up 70% of the medically important antibiotics sold for use in animals,” Raymond says. He notes that five classes of antibiotics in human medicine comprise 88% of all prescriptions and hospital orders: (in decreasing order):
- Penicillin (ex. Augmentin)
- Cephalosporin (Keflex)
- Sulfa (Bactrim)
- Fluoroquinolone (Cipro), and
- Macrolides (Z-Pak)