NOT FOR THE BIRDS.

The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has proposed to ban the use of a class of human antibiotics--fluoroquinolones--in poultry production. The CVM has determined that the overuse of this specific drug in poultry causes the development of antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter bacteria, echoing the findings of earlier studies (see "Animals on Drugs," Your Health, November/ December 2000). The FDA estimates that this pathogen accounts for nearly two million illnesses and 100 deaths each year. The Bayer Corporation, maker of the fluoroquinolone drug Enrofloxacin, has challenged the proposed ban. Health, consumer and public interest groups have called on the company to voluntarily agree to stop selling its product for use in poultry (as another fluoroquinolones manufacturer, Abbot Laboratories, has already done). "Human patients will be safer since by not using these important medical cures in birds, we'll be saving them for really important infections in people, where fluoroquinolones are a physician's favorite weapon against a wide range of bacteria," says Dr. David Wallinga, director of the Antibiotics Resistance Program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. CONTACT: FDA, Center for Veterinary Medicine, [phone], www.fda.gov/cvm