A Prescription to Remedy Global Agricultural Antibiotic Resistance: An Integrated Approach

This study focuses on determining an effective public health policy strategy to address agricultural antibiotic resistance. The research examines domestic and international examples of governmental regulation, including the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory release, Guidance for Industry #213 (FDA GFI #213), which concerns the use of antibiotics in industrial livestock farming in the United States, and the contrasting Danish policy and surveillance techniques. To determine the effectiveness of voluntary measures, this research assesses motivations leading to the creation of FDA GFI #213 by referencing specific legal disclaimers, document audience, and enforcement methods. Taking these results, the study cross-examines the goals of FDA GFI #213 with annual FDA reports on rates of agricultural antibiotic use from 2009 through 2016. This study concludes that FDA GFI #213 has not contributed to a significant decline in agricultural antibiotic use. Therefore, voluntary regulation alone is thus far shown to be ineffective in confronting antibiotic resistant pathogens. A combination of mandatory and voluntary policies has been proven successful through the Danish method of precise surveillance and mandatory regulation. This study intends to contribute to the ongoing debate on policy approaches in combating the proliferation of antibiotic resistance a culmination of industrial agriculture farming practices, legislation, and global human health