Executive action to combat the rise of drug-resistant bacteria: is agricultural antibiotic use sufficiently addressed?

Abstract

On September 18, 2014, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order titled Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. The order demands a ‘strategic, coordinated, and sustained effort’ to detect, prevent, and control antibiotic resistance. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), antibiotic-resistant infections are a rising health concern that result in at least two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths each year in the United States. The Executive Order and accompanying documents have been criticized for taking a weak stance against the use of antibiotics in agriculture; however, they include goals to promote antibiotic stewardship on farms, better surveillance of antibiotic use, and the development of alternatives to antibiotics. The criticisms are also unwarranted based on the current state of scientific evidence; nevertheless, there remain compelling reasons to limit the use of antibiotics in agriculture, and if fully implemented, the executive action is set to achieve this goal. This paper will explore why the criticisms are unwarranted, present the conflicting evidence on whether antibiotic use in farm animals poses a significant health threat to humans, offer other reasons to limit the use of antibiotics in livestock, and suggest ways that the government can maximize the efficacy of the proposed actions.

Systematic analysis of bacteriostatic mechanism of flavonoids using transcriptome and its therapeutic effect on vaginitis

“…In 2016, the World Banks' report estimated that the global gross domestic product in low income countries will fall by exceeding 5% by 2050, if we do not take action to interfere with the AMR progress [1]. AMR is not only a concern for low and middle income countries, but also results in at least two million resistant infections and at least 23 000 deaths in the United States each year [2]. Hence, AMR is considered a global public health and economic problem [3], and there is an urgent need to develop more new suitable alternative antimicrobial agents for the treatment of infectious diseases.…”

Global trends in antimicrobial resistance on organic and conventional farms

“…The overall increase in AMR is alarming and suggests that the policies restricting drug use have had little overall success, due in part to loopholes in regulations and the global increase in consumer demand for meat products 29 . For example, the Obama administration implemented policies to reduce antimicrobials as growth promoters in the US 30 .…”

A rapid method for post-antibiotic bacterial susceptibility testing

“…[16–18] The imminent threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria led to the release of an executive order for combating antibiotic resistant bacteria. [19, 20] The result of the executive order was the formation of the National Action Plan, which consisted of five goals to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria, including rapid diagnostic tools and tools for accelerating research in the development of antibiotics and therapeutics. [21] Both of these goals rely heavily on susceptibility tests.…”