Limit the use of medically important antibiotics to 21 days or less in food-producing animals

Acting FDA Commissioner Norman Sharpless,

Every year, thousands of people die in the U.S. because of antibiotic resistant infections, caused in large part by the overuse of medically important antibiotics. Industrial farms account for the majority of medically important antibiotics sold in the United States, and meat producers often use the drugs to compensate for unsanitary, overcrowded, and stressful conditions. That routine antibiotic use makes industrial farms hotbeds for antibiotic resistant bacteria.

I urge you to set duration limits of 21 days or less on all medically important antibiotics used in food-producing animals, which will minimize the risk of breeding resistant strains of bacteria.

We cannot afford to lose this bedrock of modern medicine.