FDA Report Addresses Antibiotic Resistant Food Pathogens in Poultry

Food & Drink Weekly, Dec 20, 1999

Last year, an estimated 5,000 people in the United States might have suffered longer-lasting foodborne illness because the bacteria that caused their illnesses were resistant to a number of commonly used antibiotics. And, the source of their resistance, according to a new FDA report, was from imprudent routine use of antibiotics in poultry productions. The report assesses the risks to human health of antimicrobial use in food-producing animals. FDA cautioned that the lack of national statistics on foodborne illness make it difficult to determine the accuracy of the estimate. The report, Risk Assessment on the Human Health Impact of Fluoroquinolone Resistant Campylobacter Associated with the Consumption of Chicken, looked at campylobacter, the most common type of food poisoning, that could not be killed with an antibiotic from a class known as fluoroquinolones, usually the first-line treatment for campylobacter infections.

David Vose, the independent consultant who conducted the study, used a mathematical model to calculate the risk to humans and relied on federal statistics on the number of campylobacter infections confirmed by laboratory tests in the United States in 1998. Assuming those numbers represented only a portion of all campylobacter cases, Vose estimated 2 million people were infected by the bacteria. Then, he factored in the number of people with

infections serious enough to seek treatment, and the likelihood that their cases were drug resistant. He concluded about 5,000 people were infected with resistant types of campylobacter and probably received fluoroquinolones that did not work.

FDA will hold a workshop on Feb. 22-23, to allow a public discussion of the Center for Veterinary Medicine's current thinking on the appropriate design of pre-approval studies in food-producing animals to model the rate and extent of resistance development.

Makers of animal drugs contend the risk to humans is small, and that antibiotics help keep livestock healthy and the food supply affordable. They say that in addition to treating animal sickness, antibiotics help them grow faster. However, critics believe the regular use of antibiotics in farm animals has created drug-resistant bacteria that can be passed to humans if meat from these animals is not handled or cooked properly.