FDA plans to strictly regulate use of antibiotics on farms

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government plans to impose strict new rules on antibiotics given to farm animals to combat concerns that the medicines are creating drug-resistant germs that wind up in the meat people eat.

Antibiotics are fast losing their ability to fight infections, mostly because people misuse the vital drugs: Doctors often overprescribe them, and patients often don't take them properly.But scientists say antibiotics used on the farm now are causing foodborne bacteria to mutate into treatment-resistant forms -- so the Food and Drug Administration is preparing rules to try to curb the problem.

"It's an issue that won't go away and can no longer be ignored," said Michigan veterinarian Keith Sterner, who chaired a panel of FDA advisers that backed most of the agency's plans Tuesday.

The advisory committee said FDA's plan to force antibiotic manufacturers to conduct on-the-farm testing of drug resistance probably would never work.