Nearly two-thirds of medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. are intended for livestock and poultry -- even though the practice breeds drug-resistant bacteria that can escape from farms and make people sick. Tell the FDA to do its part to combat this "slow-motion pandemic" and eliminate antibiotic overuse on factory farms. TAKE ACTION:
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Friend,

It's clearer than ever: Antibiotic-resistant infections are a "slow-motion pandemic" happening right before our eyes.

According to new research, these "superbugs" killed at least 1.2 million people worldwide in 2019 -- more than the previous annual estimate by over half a million.[1]

One of the key ways to keep our infection-fighting medicines effective is to stop overusing them on factory farms, and to do that, we need the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to step up.

The FDA has a chance to make a huge impact by eliminating the preventative use of medically important antibiotics in food animal production. Tell the FDA: We need to change how the sausage gets made.
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Nearly two-thirds of the antibiotics considered important to human medicine that are sold in the United States are intended for use on livestock. That's because conventional meat producers routinely use antibiotics to prevent infections in cattle and swine they raise in unsanitary, overcrowded and stressful living conditions -- not just to treat sick animals.[2]

Routine antibiotic use on factory farms may cut production costs short-term, but it imposes long-term costs on public health by breeding drug-resistant bacteria that can escape from farms and make people sick.[3]

Aside from conducting studies and publishing reports on antibiotic use in animal agriculture, the FDA has done little to drive real, systemic change in the industry. The incoming FDA commissioner should have one thing at the top of his to-do list: Eliminate the preventative use of medically important antibiotics in food animal production, just as the European Union recently did.[4]

Send your message today urging FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf to stop the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms.
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We know that efforts to stop antibiotic overuse work. A recent study in Canada highlighted how eliminating the prophylactic use of antibiotics can reduce the development of some antibiotic-resistant bacteria in food animals.[5]

And the work of PIRG and our allies over the past few years has driven a major shift away from antibiotic use in the U.S. chicken industry.[6]

But there's more -- much more -- that needs to be done. Without bold action, the global death toll for antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" could be up to 10 million annually by 2050.[7]

To save lives and extend the progress we've made on chicken production to the beef and pork industries, we need the FDA to step up. Will you add your name to our petition telling the FDA to take action against antibiotic resistance?
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Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. "Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis02724-0/fulltext)," The Lancet, January 19, 2022.
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2. Matthew Wellington, "When it comes to antibiotics, it's time to change how the sausage gets made," The Hill, February 3, 2022.
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3. Melinda Wenner Moyer, "How Drug-Resistant Bacteria Travel from the Farm to Your Table," Scientific American, December 1, 2016.
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4. Arthur Neslen, "European parliament approves curbs on use of antibiotics on farm animals," The Guardian, October 25, 2018.
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5. "Reduction in Antimicrobial Use and Resistance to Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli in Broiler Chickens, Canada, 2013--2019," U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, September 2021.
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6. "Chain Reaction VI," U.S. PIRG Education Fund, July 2021.
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7. "Antimicrobial Resistance: Tackling a crisis for the health and wealth of nations," Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, December 2014.
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