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Reps. markey, slaughter press fda on antibiotic use in ethanolproduction by 123wert sdfsf
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Reps. markey, slaughter press fda on antibiotic use in ethanolproduction |
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With growing concern over antibiotic resistance, public healthadvocates have long pushed for more responsible use of these drugs-- both in human medicine and animal agriculture -- but there isone piece of the antibiotics puzzle that has not received as muchattention: ethanol production. Last week, Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) wroteto the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking some toughquestions about the potential link between ethanol byproducts inanimal feed and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. "Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are a grave public healththreat that is growing worldwide," wrote Markey and Slaughter.
"Asthe threat of antibiotic resistance expands, we must ensure thatthe unnecessary use of antibiotics in agricultural animals isminimized and FDA has the ability to limit their use if it servesto protect public health." The letter follows a new report by Minneapolis-based Institute forAgriculture and Trade Policy, which highlights the fact that manyethanol producers routinely add antibiotics like medicallyimportant penicillin and erythromycin, as well as virginiamycin andtylosin, when mixing corn mash and warm water to ferment theethanol. Producers use antibiotics to keep the tanks from being contaminatedwith Lactobacilli, bacteria that compete with the yeast and lowersthe ethanol yield. Contamination is common so tanks are ofteninoculated as a preventative measure. So, what does this process have to do with food safety andantimicrobial resistance? Well, the leftover distillers grains cancontain antibiotic residues and they are routinely fed to foodanimals.
As IATP points out in their new paper , "Bugs in the system," ethanol producers have no restrictions onantibiotic use: "Ethanol producers have full discretion over thequantity and frequency with which they dump antibiotics into theirplants. As ethanol production has exploded, from 4.5 to 12.5billion gallons per year between 2005-06 and 2009-10, antibioticuse also has undoubtedly increased, although currently the FDA doesnot appear to track antibiotic sales to ethanol producers, as itdoes sales for use in animals." In the last 10 years, distillers grains production has skyrocketedfrom, from 2.5 to 34.1 million metric tons per year according tothe report. Around 41 percent of the byproduct is used in domesticbeef production, 26 percent in dairy, 5 percent go to swine andpoultry, and 22 percent heads overseas for livestock feed. There is not a lot of data on antibiotics residues in distillersgrains and it's not clear whether the byproduct might becontributing to antibiotic resistance. In 2008, FDA tested and analyzed 45 samples of distillers grainsand found antibiotic residues in 24 (53 percent) of them, includingsome over .5 parts per million (ppm).
"These test results were exceedingly important because theydisproved the belief that antibiotic use in ethanol production wasbenign vis- -vis public health," argues IATP in the paper. "Thisstudy showed the opposite: Antibiotic use in ethanol productionincreases the load of nontherapeutic antibiotics being fed tolivestock, which the FDA itself acknowledges is a public healththreat needing to be addressed." In 2010, FDA conducted another round of sampling. Out of 46 totalsamples, 28 of which were domestic and 18 imported, four testedpositive for residues in concentrations ranging from .16 to .58ppm. The question is whether these levels are significant. The study cites a new paper out of FDA's Center for VeterinaryMedicine that analyzed the 2010 findings.
Researchers found thatthe lowest levels of penicillin and virginiamycin present in thesamples didn't contribute to antibiotic resistance amongCampyloacter or Enterococcus bacteria. But they also found thatErythromycin at .58 ppm did select for resistance in enteroccousbacteria. "Given these results it is suggested that residues in distillersgrains be more fully evaluated given the importance of thisantimicrobial in clinical medicine," the researchers wrote in theirabstract. Recent research out of the University of Minnesota , which has not yet been published, found antibiotic residues inall of the 117 samples they tested and one result was strong enoughto inhibit E.
coli growth. IATP argues that distillers grains containing antibiotics should beregulated as food additives and regulated by FDA. The paperrecommends that FDA ban the sale of unapproved antibiotics toethanol producers and asks that the ethanol industry voluntarilyswitch to effective non-antibiotic antimicrobial alternatives.According to some estimates, half the industry already has alreadydone this. The paper also recommends that the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,the Department of Energy and state and federal agencies help theindustry make the switch with technical assistance and financialsupport. In their letter to FDA, Markey and Slaughter seek specificresponses to several of the issues raised in the IATP report. They want to know why FDA hasn't published the full results of its2008 survey on distillers grains and antibiotic residues and askwhether the survey results suggest that these residues could alsobe found in meat, poultry, dairy or egg products. The lawmakers further ask, "Does FDA believe that the presence ofantibiotics in DGS used for livestock feed may pose a similarpublic health concern as the impact of directly using antibioticdrugs to promote livestock growth?" Markey and Slaughter also ask why the agency banned the use ofdistillers grains contaminated with certain antibiotics for layinghens but not for other food producing animals. I am a professional writer from Home Supplies Agents, which contains a great deal of information about upright display freezer , stainless steel dehydrator, welcome to visit!
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