GAO: Feds need more data needed on antibiotics and resistance, and it's looking at use in animals

The federal government needs to collect more information about the use of antibiotics and the increase in antibiotic-resistant infections, a Government Accountability Office report said this month. The report said in a footnote that "GAO has ongoing work examining antibiotic use in food animals," so it seems likely to have more to say about the topic.

Critics have blamed rising antibiotic resistance partly on heavy use in animals raised for food; about three-fourths of antibiotics in the U.S. are used on animals, according to the Food and Drug Administration. However, the GAO report says in a footnote that those data are limited "because they combine therapeutic and subtherapeutic uses of antibiotics and all species of animals. Further, these data do not take into account the dose size, which varies by individual antibiotic and species of animal, or the total number of animals that received antibiotics."

The GAO said the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lack sources of data, such as inpatient use of antibiotics by hospitals, to evaluate the extent and causes of rising resistance. "Monitoring overall antibiotic use in humans, including in inpatient and outpatient healthcare settings, is also needed to evaluate the contribution of such use — relative to other causes, such as animal use — to the overall problem of antibiotic resistance," the 66-page report concluded. For a copy, click here.