dent third parties such as USDA provide greater accountability and transparency to the process than self-enforced
policies.
Importantly, such policies are not
static, as existing standards may be
revised and new ones established. In
addition to long-standing organic standards and the absolute prohibition of
antibiotic use, producers and advocates
are proposing new standards that allow
for the responsible use of antibiotics to
protect animal health while still greatly
reducing overall use in food animal production. Below are comparisons of several standards now verified by USDA:
Standards available for all food
producers:
Organic: 6 No use of antibiotics,
beginning in the third trimester of gestation for mammals and the second day
of life for poultry.
No Antibiotics Ever (NAE): 7 No antibiotics used during the entirety of the
food animal’s life.
No Medically Important Antibiotics: 7 No use of antibiotics deemed
important by the World Health Organization for therapeutic use in humans;
however, antibiotics with no relevance
to human medicine, such as iono-phores, can be used.
Standards available for food producers
marketing to institutional purchasers only:
Certified Responsible Antibiotic Use
(CRAU): 8 Medically important anti-
biotics can be used only when pre-
scribed by a veterinarian to protect the
health of the animal.
These USDA-verified standards demonstrate the diversity of transparent and
meaningful antibiotic-use policies, all of
which can help make a positive impact
on slowing the emergence of antibiotic
resistance.
In the following section, two USDA-verified standards illustrate different
approaches to restricting antibiotic use
and how each approach can be put into
practice by highlighting some of the basic criteria characteristic of transparent
and meaningful standards, demonstrating the diversity of effective approaches
currently available and underscoring the
ANTIBIOTICS
Prohibited starting Jan. 1, 2017
Characteristics
Audit Requirements
Audit Frequency
Scope
Reach
Transparency
Role of the Veterinarian
Use of Medically
Important Antibiotics
for Growth Promotion
Use of Medically
Important Antibiotics in
Ovo (in the Hatchery)
Use of Medically Important Antibiotics to Treat,
Control and Prevent
Diseases in Flock
Use of Nonmedically
Important Antibiotics
Conventional
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Oversight over medically
important antibiotics
administered through
feed or water (starting
Jan. 1, 2017)
No restrictions‡
Permitted
No restrictions‡
No Antibiotics Ever7 Responsible Antibiotic Use*
USDA (Process-Verified Program)
Annual audits on-site as well as records review
(first audit after 6 months)
All antibiotics Medically important antibiotics
Comprehensive, including hatcheries, feed mills, slaughter and further
processing plants
List of approved companies List of approved companies
published on USDA website published on USDA website
Audit reports shared with
School Food Focus
Oversight over medically Oversight over medically important
important antibiotics antibiotics; written assessment if
administered through feed or medically important antibiotics have
water (starting Jan. 1, 2017); to be given to more than two
additional veterinary oversight consecutive flocks
dependent on company
Prohibited Prohibited
Treated animals have to be Permitted, but no routine use; if
diverted to secondary market needed in more than two
consecutive flocks, a written
assessment must be performed by
the veterinarian
Same as medically important No restrictions‡
Table 1. Examples of Meaningful Approaches for Reducing Antibiotic Use
*CRAU (Certified Responsible Antibiotic Use), which is available only for institutional poultry purchasers, is used as the example here.
‡Assuming use adheres to the legal requirements set out by FDA.
