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    The U.S. Can't Really Know If Farmers Are Cutting Back On Antibiotics, GAO Says

    New FDA rules limit how farmers can give antibiotics to animals raised for meat. But a Government Accountability Office report says the FDA doesn't collect the data to know if that policy is working.
    by Maryn McKenna Mar 24, 2017 3 minutes
    New FDA rules limit how farmers can give antibiotics to animals raised for meat. But a Government Accountability Office report says the FDA doesn't collect the data to know if that policy is working.

    When the Food and Drug Administration created controls in January on how farmers can give antibiotics to livestock, scientists concerned about antibiotic resistance and advocates for animal welfare called it a historic shift in how meat animals are raised.

    But a new federal report, released last week, says the long-awaited FDA initiative — first attempted back in 1977 — falls short in so many areas that it may not create the change that backers hoped for.

    The FDA initiative, which was created by several documents called Guidances, made it impossible for livestock producers to use routine micro-doses of antibiotics known as growth promoters. Those doses speed up the time it takes to get chickens, swine and cattle to slaughtering weight, without preventing or treating illness.

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