Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2018/06/stewardship-resistance-scan-jun-22-2018
Stewardship / Resistance Scan for Jun 22, 2018
Antibiotics-in-animals bill; AMR research in Africa, Asia
Filed Under:
Antimicrobial Stewardship
[h=3]Senators introduce bill to bolster oversight of antibiotics in food animals[/h] Today Democratic US Senators Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) introduced the Strengthening Antibiotic Oversight Act to strengthen regulation of medically important antibiotics administered to food-producing animals.
If passed, the legislation would require the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees the drugs in food animals, to review the duration of use of approved indications for medically important antibiotics labeled for animal use and would give the agency authority to withdraw approvals for unjustified durations. The bill also directs the FDA to use funds collected through animal drug user fees to collect and report data on antibiotics delivered to farms, through sampling of veterinary feed directives and feed distribution reports.
Current FDA rules do not contain duration limits regulating how much of an antibiotic can be used in an animal for a specified amount of time for all medically important antibiotics, according to a news release on Sen. Warren's website.
"The FDA has taken a number of steps to address the issue of antibiotic resistance, but with two million Americans developing antibiotic-resistant infections every year, it's clear that more work needs to be done," said Sen. Warren."One way to approach this is to reduce the overuse of antibiotics in animals. I'm glad to partner with my colleagues on a bill to help the FDA collect better data and support more careful use of antibiotics."
Sen. Feinstein added, "Our bill will give the FDA greater oversight and ensure medically-important antibiotics are used sparingly."
Matt Wellington, antibiotics program director for U.S. PIRG, said in a release emailed to journalists, "About a third of the medically important antibiotics approved for use in food-producing animals through feed or water have label indications without duration limits. That means meat producers can use these drugs continuously, which would further increase drug-resistant bacteria.
"There are few instances in human medicine where such prolonged antibiotic use would be appropriate. We should apply the same standard to animal medicine and farming."
Jun 22 Sen. Warren news release
[h=3]UK awards $16 million for AMR research in low-, middle-income countries[/h] The UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) today announced $15.9 million in grants to four universities to study drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa and Asia.
The AMR in a Global Context Consortia awards, totaling ?12 million, are jointly funded by the cross-research council AMR initiative and the National Institute for Health Research's (NIHR's) Global Health Research Programme. Teams at the University of Bristol, the University of St. Andrews, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the University of Glasgow won the awards.
The 3-year awards will connect UK researchers with scientists and policy makers in partner countries. They will use a range of research approaches?from clinical and microbiological studies to geography, modeling, and social sciences?to address various AMR issues in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Thailand.
"The NIHR, working in partnership with the cross-research council AMR initiative, is pleased to be supporting four multidisciplinary consortia to identify the factors driving microbial resistance in LMICs and contribute to the development of context-specific interventions to tackle this global health challenge," said Prof. Chris Whitty, NIHR chief scientific adviser, in an MRC news release.
Jun 22 MRC press release
Stewardship / Resistance Scan for Jun 22, 2018
Antibiotics-in-animals bill; AMR research in Africa, Asia
Filed Under:
Antimicrobial Stewardship
[h=3]Senators introduce bill to bolster oversight of antibiotics in food animals[/h] Today Democratic US Senators Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) introduced the Strengthening Antibiotic Oversight Act to strengthen regulation of medically important antibiotics administered to food-producing animals.
If passed, the legislation would require the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees the drugs in food animals, to review the duration of use of approved indications for medically important antibiotics labeled for animal use and would give the agency authority to withdraw approvals for unjustified durations. The bill also directs the FDA to use funds collected through animal drug user fees to collect and report data on antibiotics delivered to farms, through sampling of veterinary feed directives and feed distribution reports.
Current FDA rules do not contain duration limits regulating how much of an antibiotic can be used in an animal for a specified amount of time for all medically important antibiotics, according to a news release on Sen. Warren's website.
"The FDA has taken a number of steps to address the issue of antibiotic resistance, but with two million Americans developing antibiotic-resistant infections every year, it's clear that more work needs to be done," said Sen. Warren."One way to approach this is to reduce the overuse of antibiotics in animals. I'm glad to partner with my colleagues on a bill to help the FDA collect better data and support more careful use of antibiotics."
Sen. Feinstein added, "Our bill will give the FDA greater oversight and ensure medically-important antibiotics are used sparingly."
Matt Wellington, antibiotics program director for U.S. PIRG, said in a release emailed to journalists, "About a third of the medically important antibiotics approved for use in food-producing animals through feed or water have label indications without duration limits. That means meat producers can use these drugs continuously, which would further increase drug-resistant bacteria.
"There are few instances in human medicine where such prolonged antibiotic use would be appropriate. We should apply the same standard to animal medicine and farming."
Jun 22 Sen. Warren news release
[h=3]UK awards $16 million for AMR research in low-, middle-income countries[/h] The UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) today announced $15.9 million in grants to four universities to study drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa and Asia.
The AMR in a Global Context Consortia awards, totaling ?12 million, are jointly funded by the cross-research council AMR initiative and the National Institute for Health Research's (NIHR's) Global Health Research Programme. Teams at the University of Bristol, the University of St. Andrews, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the University of Glasgow won the awards.
The 3-year awards will connect UK researchers with scientists and policy makers in partner countries. They will use a range of research approaches?from clinical and microbiological studies to geography, modeling, and social sciences?to address various AMR issues in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Thailand.
"The NIHR, working in partnership with the cross-research council AMR initiative, is pleased to be supporting four multidisciplinary consortia to identify the factors driving microbial resistance in LMICs and contribute to the development of context-specific interventions to tackle this global health challenge," said Prof. Chris Whitty, NIHR chief scientific adviser, in an MRC news release.
Jun 22 MRC press release