7/29/2009 8:23:00 AM H.R. 1549, determining antibiotic use
Several cattle groups are opposed to H.R. 1549, the "Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009" and are asking leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives to ensure the measure is not attached to other federal legislation.
H.R. 1549, and its companion bill in the U.S. Senate (S. 619), prohibits the use of animal antibiotics for non-therapeutic use and calls for all "critical antimicrobial animal drugs to go through a second Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process within two years of enactment of the legislation."
USCA Director and International Trade Committee Chair, Doug Zalesky, Colorado said, "It is admirable that Congress wants to focus on consumer food safety protections. However, H.R. 1549 and its companion bill in the Senate do nothing to mitigate or regulate the use of antimicrobial drugs in foreign meat production, putting U.S. producers at a significant trade disadvantage. On a regular basis the U.S. imports foreign meat derived from animals managed under far less regulation than currently exists in the U.S., let alone what H.R. 1549 proposes to do. Before legislation like this is rushed through, Congress should undertake a thorough study of antimicrobial drug use in foreign meat production and how that impacts U.S. consumers as well as how much antimicrobial drug use is subsidized in foreign countries." The House Rules Committee recently held a hearing on the measure. While H.R. 1549 would dramatically affect the U.S. livestock industry, no representatives of livestock production and no veterinarians were invited to testify. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) was the only witness who testified in opposition to the bill.
