Canada phasing out growth drugs in livestock

Amid growing international concern over the spread of superbugs on farms, slaughterhouses and supermarket meat counters, Health Canada is moving to phase out use of antibiotic growth promoters in Canadian livestock.

The drugs have been used for decades to spike the feed and water of chickens, pigs and cattle to boost their growth — “mass medication” that Canada’s top doctor, and many others, has said should stop.

In a statement Friday, Canadian drug producers say they have agreed with Health Canada “to phase out uses of medically important antibiotics for growth promotion.” The phase- out is expected to take three years.

“Successful implementation of this policy means that medically important antibiotics will only be used in food animals under the direction of a veterinarian when there is a specific disease challenge,” says the Canadian Animal Health Institute, an association representing companies that supply close to 1,600 tonnes of antibiotics a year to Canadian farmers.

The plan is to “align to the extent possible” with recent U. S. steps to curb use of growth promoters and increase veterinary oversight of the way antimicrobials are used, says Health Canada’s “notice to stakeholders,” issued Thursday.

The Canadian government is under growing pressure to act as the U. S. and other countries move to curb antibiotic use in agriculture to try to slow the spread of antibiotic- resistant bacteria that are showing up not only in hospitals but on farms and at meat counters.

Health officials say antibiotics need to be better controlled in both health care and agriculture as the drugs can make bacteria morph into resistant strains that are increasingly difficult to kill.

“This could be a seismic shift,” John Prescott, a veterinarian at the University of Guelph, told Postmedia News by email on Friday.

He said he hopes it will lead to a lot more action.

Prescott co- chaired a committee of leading Canadian veterinarians and agricultural experts that issued a scathing report in March that gave Canada failing grades for not better monitoring and controlling use of antibiotics in agriculture.