do you know what would happen if i used something “off-label”?

Back in July, under pressure from the citizenry and the American Medical Association, the FDA placed a ban on certain types of antibiotics that are used in the livestock industry.

The antibiotic in question is cephalosporin. This is a very powerful antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections and is structurally similar to penicillin.

The issue at hand is, first, that it is being used off label. That means that the drug has not been approved for veterinary use. However, that has not prevented Pfizer from selling it, or members of the industry from using it to treat livestock with severe infections. Many critics argue that use of this antibiotic can affect the human population by building up resistance to bacteria, making infections lethal and not treatable.

In July, the FDA placed on a ban on off label use of this drug and said it would “crack down” on ranchers that used the medication. In fact, the veterinary director for the FDA, at the time, stated: ‘We have [bacterial organisms] moving around the world that we have never seen before,’ he told a conference, according to Dairy Herd Management magazine and that “antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming more common in cattle.”

Despite this, today, under pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and the livestock industry, the FDA reversed its ban on the use of these antibiotics.

Many things can be said about the FDA practices and the impact this will have. What will not be mentioned and needs to be is the ongoing research into the large effect the livestock industry has on the environment and the need to reduce the intake of meat. And, not only that, but have you ever wondered why your meat is filled with disease? Why would you want to eat something that has been sick enough that it needed STRONG medication?

If humans drastically reduced, although I would prefer gave up, their intake of meat, animals could be raised in ways that do not harm the environment and are not getting sick.