Both outbreaks were traced back to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” often developed in farms that pump their livestock with human antibiotics to spur animal growth and prevent diseases from spreading in overpopulated farms. This means that if a disease hops from the animal to a farm employee — or a dinner plate to a human’s digestive system — regular antibiotics wouldn’t be able to cure the disease. And if it isn’t contained, there’s little stopping a major deadly outbreak.
The Food and Drug Administration, while acknowledging the gravity of superbug outbreaks, has yet to create mandatory laws banning antibiotics for this purpose — despite the fact that every year, two million Americans fall sick and about 23,000 die from antibiotic-resistant diseases.
But last week, California decided it was done waiting for federal intervention. Home to the third largest livestock industry in the country, California took became the first state to ban the unnecessary use of human antibiotics on its livestock population.
“What’s happening in California is some of the most exciting news I’ve heard in a while,” said Lance Price, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center (ARAC) at George Washington University. “And you know what they say about California — it passes a law and the rest of the country follows.”
But Price, who’s spent years studying the link between the overuse of antibiotics in livestock and the rise of antibiotic resistance, along with other industry experts said that signing this bill — which won’t go into effect until 2018 — is just the beginning of a bigger battle. One that involves consumer influence and increased government intervention. One that won’t stop until it makes it to the FDA.