FDA Policy/General

GAO Still Finds Gaps in Food Animal Antibiotic Use Data

David McFarland

— 1 min read
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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that since its 2011 report, FDA and the Agriculture Department have made progress in overseeing use of medically important drugs in food animals, but still more needs to be done. The agency’s report says that since 2011, FDA has increased veterinary oversight of antibiotics and has worked with the Agriculture Department to make several improvements in collecting data on antibiotic use in food animals and resistance in bacteria. “However,” it says, “oversight gaps still exist.”

GAO says that changes to drug labels do not address long-term and open-ended use of antibiotics for disease prevention because some antibiotics do not define duration of use on their labels. FDA officials responded that they are seeking public comments on establishing durations of use on labels, but GAO says that FDA has not clearly defined objectives for closing the gap, which is inconsistent with federal internal control standards. And without those objectives, it says, FDA will not know whether it is ensuring judicious use of antibiotics.

The report also says that gaps in farm-specific data on antibiotic use and resistance that GAO found in 2011 remain, and GAO continues to believe that the two agencies should implement a joint on-farm data collection plan.

The report contains these recommendations for FDA: 

  •          HHS should direct FDA to develop a process, which may include time frames, to establish appropriate durations of use on labels of all medically important antibiotics used in farm animals;
  •          HHS should direct FDA to establish steps to increase voluntary oversight of medically important antibiotics administered in routes other than feed and water, such as injection and tablets; and
  •          HHS should direct FDA to develop performance measures and targets for actions to manage antibiotics use such as revising the veterinary feed directive and developing documents on judicious use.

The report says that HHS neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendations. It also includes three recommendations directed at the Agriculture Department that the agency agreed to.

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