BEIJING,
March 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is
expected to approve a powerful antibiotic for cattle despite warnings it would
be dangerous for people, U.S. media reported on Monday.
The drug, called cefquinome, belongs to a class of
highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defenses against
several serious human infections. No drug from that class has been approved in
the United States for use in animals.
The fear is that using such drugs in animals can lead
to the emergence of new drug-resistant "superbugs" which will be immune to
similar drugs when used in people.
The overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals
has already helped such bacteria evolve, and infectious disease experts have
been warning doctors to use them more judiciously.
Critics like Edward Belongia, an epidemiologist at
the Wisconsin-based Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, pointed to the
approval of two powerful drugs in the 1990s for use in poultry,
leading to a drug-resistant strain of
campylobacter.
"The industry says that 'until you show
us a direct link to human mortality from the use of these drugs in animals, we
don't think you should preclude their use,'" Belongia said. "But do we really
want to drive more resistance genes into the human population? It's easy to open
the barn door, but it's hard to close the door once it's open."
InterVet Inc., a Delaware company, has applied to the FDA
to market Cefquinome for treatment of a pneumonia-like disease, media reported.
(Agenies)
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