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Oregon's Senate Bill 920 would limit the use of antibiotics in livestock. It's future, though, is uncertain.

(The Associated Press)

An Oregon Senate bill targets one of the biggest health threats facing modern medicine: antibiotic-resistant bacteria.



Antibiotics have saved countless lives since they were introduced in the 1940s but bacteria have fought back. Mutating and adapting, they've caused powerful drugs, like penicillin, to lose their punch. Every year, 2 million people in the United States are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. About 23,000 die because physicians lack the drugs to treat them.



Senate Bill 920 would allow the use of antibiotics to treat sick cattle, swine or poultry. It would ban routine doses, which have been used for decades to fatten animals for slaughter. Farmers and ranchers could use the drugs to prevent the spread of infection but only in limited circumstances.



If approved, the bill would be the first of its kind nationwide. But its passage is far from certain.



Critics, including the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Feed and Grain Association and Oregon Veterinary Medical Association, say the bill would hurt the health of Oregon farm animals and crimp profits in a state that exports 80 percent of its agricultural production.



"The law would be putting our producers on an unlevel playing field," said Jenny Dresler, the farm bureau's government affairs associate.



Supporters counter by pointing out that three of the nation's top poultry producers - Tyson Foods, Perdue and Pilgrim's Pride - are slashing the use of medically important antibiotics while some large restaurant chains and grocery stores - McDonald's, Whole Foods Market, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle and Panera Bread - have either stopped buying chicken meat from birds raised with antibiotics or plan to do so in the future. Walmart also called on its suppliers to limit antibiotic use in farm animals.



"If they can do it, why can't other farms?" asked David Rosenfeld, director of the consumer advocacy group OSPIRG.



Rosenfeld said the bill would help ensure that Oregon farms do not become petri dishes for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.



"There are a lot of big farms in the Willamette Valley that are potentially overusing antibiotics and breeding superbugs that could present a real health hazard for Oregonians," Rosenfeld said.



Foster Farms, which buys chickens from 17 operations in Oregon, says on its website that its hatcheries have stopped using gentamicin, a medically important antibiotic, and that it does not use human drugs to fatten its flocks. But the producer, which slaughters tens of thousands of birds a day in the Northwest, has not promised to phase out antibiotics.



Antibiotic-resistant salmonella turned up in two of four outbreaks traced by health officials to Foster Farms chicken over the past decade, sickening more than 600 in the fourth outbreak from 2013 through 2014 and causing nearly double the hospitalization rate.



Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a nightmare to treat.



"Everyone now has a responsibility to improve the situation," said Dr. Brian Wong, chief of the infectious disease division at Oregon Health & Science University. "Medical people are trying. Farmers who raise animals also should try."



OHSU, the Oregon Nurses Association, the Oregon Medical Association and Oregon Pediatric Society support the bill along with OSPIRG.



Wong said the bill will not fix the problem of antibiotic resistance but will slow the tilt towards a time when the medicine chest is bare. Critics say the federal government is already addressing the issue.



The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates antibiotics, has issued voluntary recommendations that will change antibiotic labels, requiring veterinary oversight and banning growth promotion use. But the recommendations do not cover routine low-dose uses to prevent infections that health experts consider the biggest threat.



Though it's difficult to trace antibiotic use at one farm, for example, with a particular patient, there is a correlation between the growth in antibiotic use and the number of resistant organisms, Wong said.



"I don't think there is really much doubt that there is a cause and effect relationship," Wong said.



The bill was voted out of the Senate Health Care Committee and is now sitting in the Rules Committee. With the legislative clock ticking, its outlook is uncertain.



"We're sill working on it," said Anthony Gaskill, policy assistant for the chief sponsor, Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham. "But we're running out of time."

-- Lynne Terry