To learn more about why children are particularly vulnerable to the suffering associated with antibiotic resistance, visit the Keep Antibiotics fact sheet titled, “Antibiotic Resistance and its Impact on Children.”

The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) will phase out the feeding of massive quantities of antibiotics important in human medicine to food animals within two years of enactment. Livestock and poultry producers use these life-saving medicines in animal feed not to treat disease but to accelerate growth and prevent diseases caused by overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions on industrial-style “factory farms.” An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics and related drugs produced in this country—nearly 25 million pounds per year—are used in animal agriculture for these nontherapeutic purposes. This amount is estimated to be more than eight times the amount of drugs used to treat human illness.

While some producers and retailers of meat products have announced policies that take steps to curb antibiotic use, private-sector initiatives to reduce antibiotic use in animal agriculture are rare, limited in scope, and difficult to verify. Federal action is needed to achieve comprehensive reductions and create a level playing field for all producers and retailers.

Passage of PAMTA is critical to keep antibiotics working for human health. In addition to averting the harmful effects of antibiotic overuse on human health, curtailing animal use of antibiotics will encourage producers to raise animals using more sustainable methods.

The American Medical Association and more than 350 other health, consumer, environmental, agricultural, and humane organizations support PAMTA.

Your voice is needed to build support for this critical legislation. Please write to Senator DeWine and urge him to cosponsor this legislation to preserve antibiotics as an important tool to protect human health!