The following is a portion of an article posted in The Daily Journal
State Sen. Jerry Hill and Assemblyman Kevin Mullin are gearing up for another year of working to battle antibiotic-resistant infections by striving to curb the overuse of nearly 70 percent of the nation’s antibiotics currently being given to livestock and poultry.
Hill, D-San Mateo, and Mullin, D-South San Francisco, proposed legislation that failed last legislative session, but say the issue is critical to public health and are dedicated to continuing their efforts.
Some industry representatives support the judicious use of antibiotics in livestock and not for growth stimulation, but feel restricting the ability for ranchers to use them for disease prevention is going too far.
Hill’s Senate Bill 27 would require a veterinarian prescription for any antibiotics administered to livestock or poultry and ban the use to stimulate growth. Hill’s renewed efforts are somewhat similar to his previous bill that passed in the Senate and Assembly before being vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September. That bill would have made the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent recommendations regarding the use of antibiotics in livestock mandatory.
“He indicated that he wanted a little more in the bill than we had. So we’ve made a couple of additions and one is that it would require the [California] Department of Food and Agriculture to develop antibiotic stewardship guidelines,” Hill said. “To develop a system to accurately track and monitor the amount of antibiotics being used.”
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Source: The Daily Journal
Posted by Jami Howell
