Statement of Josh Tulkin, Director of the Maryland Sierra Club, on passage of the Keep Antibiotics Effective Act (HB 602, SB 422)
Tuesday March 21, 2017
We commend the General Assembly for its bipartisan support for the Keep Antibiotics Effective Act, which passed the House (139 - 1) and the Senate (35-12)
Each year over 2 million U.S. citizens contract an antibiotic resistant infection and 23,000 of those people die as a result. The Keep Antibiotics Effective Act will stop large farms from overusing antibiotics in animals that aren’t sick, which is known to increase the risk of antibiotic resistant superbugs which can be transmitted from farm to humans.
The legislation, sponsored by Delegate Shane Robinson and Senator Paul Pinsky, bars the use of antibiotics to promote growth or feed efficiency purposes in farm animals, and other unnecessary purposes. Under this new law, antibiotics will only be permitted to be used in animal agriculture in Maryland under the supervision or direction of a veterinarian, for medically necessary purposes. Cows, pigs, and chickens will still be able to receive antibiotics when they are sick, yet it is expected this significant curtailing of antibiotic use will drastically slow the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria here in Maryland.
It is crucial for the state government to have the ability to track how many antibiotics are being used, which ones, approximately where, and for what purpose. Maryland will need to know this information in order to assess whether the law is working—whether the law is being followed, how much progress is being made, how much more progress we can make, and how.
We are disappointed that the data-collection provisions were stripped from the legislation, instead relying on a voluntary federal reporting program. We urge the General Assembly to reconsider this important issue in the future.
Even with these shortcomings, the bill represents a significant step forward for this issue. We applaud the General Assembly and encourage Governor Hogan to sign the bill into law.
Link to House Legislation, Senate Legislation