Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act

human antibiotics are fed routinely to livestock Most doctors commonly warn their patients never to take antibiotics if they are not actually sick. Yet that is exactly what is happening on industrial farms where food animals often are given low doses of antibiotics over long periods of time to speed growth and to compensate for unsanitary and crowded conditions. In fact, up to 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in the U.S. are given to healthy farm animals, not people.

As a result, new deadly strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria develop in the animals and can transfer to people through eating and handling meat, contact with food animals, eating food grown in contaminated manure or drinking water polluted by farm runoff. Once the bacteria are loose in the environment, they can exchange resistance with other bacteria, creating a major health crisis.

Legislation exists that would address this problem. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA, H.R. 1549, S. 619) would withdraw the use of seven classes of antibiotics vitally important to human health from food animal production unless animals or herds are sick with diagnosed disease or unless drug companies can prove that their routine use does not harm human health. Hundreds of groups already support this legislation including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatricians, Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Nurses Association and the World Health Organization.

Now, we need your help. Please contact your representatives and ask them to cosponsor PAMTA.

Use the letter below as a guide but to increase your impact please personalize the subject line and message.

Tell me more

Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

(Edit Letter Below)

I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009 (PAMTA).  PAMTA would phase out the use of human antibiotics in food animals, except when needed to treat diagnosed disease.

To help prevent the development of "superbugs" that are resistant to antibiotics, doctors commonly warn their patients that antibiotics should only be used for bacterial infections, and should be taken at the proper dosage for the full course of treatment.  Yet many industrial farms violate these medical principles every day by feeding healthy animals low doses of antibiotics over long periods of time in order to speed up their growth and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions.  This creates the ideal breeding ground for dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria to thrive and spread.  In fact, up to 70 percent of all antibiotics produced in the U.S. are given to healthy farm animals, not people.  This threatens the health of farm workers, communities and the public.

By eliminating the routine feeding of human antibiotics to food animals and reducing the prevalence of antibiotic resistance, we are saving antibiotics and allowing them to remain effective for treating human illness.  Again, I hope you support PAMTA, which saves our antibiotics so that antibiotics can save us.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

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