FDA Will Approve Drug for Cattle Despite Risk to Humans

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to approve a powerful antibiotic for cattle, despite the fact that it has been linked to growing antibiotic-resistant disease in people.

The medication, which has been used to treat respiratory disease in cattle in Europe. The FDA will approve the drug because it requires proof that food-borne illness in people will result.

The Washington Post reported that InterVet Inc., a Delaware company, has submitted an application to the FDA to market the antibiotic cefquinome, for treatment of a pneumonia-like disease in cattle.

Cefquinome belongs to a fourth-generation cephalosporin, which is a classification of antibiotics that doctors regularly use in humans to treat a number of illness like gastrointestinal diseases in children and meningitis.

There are many opponents to the approval of the drug, including the American Medical Association, the Veterinary Medical Advisory Committee, about a dozen other health groups and even some of the FDA's own advisory committees.. They fear that using cefquinome in cattle might produce drug-resistant "superbugs," which will then be immune to the antibiotic when it is used in humans.

New York Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, a microbiologist, has advised the FDA against approving the drug. "Over the past several years, the integrity o the FDA's drug review process has been called into question amid allegations that your agency has put the interests of industry and politics above science," Slaughter said to the Association.

In a statement by InterVet, the company states that medications similar to cefquinome have been used in animals for the past decade in Europe, "without compromising the interests of public health."

However, there is recent European data that indicates the opposite: resistance against this class of antibiotics is rising.