New antibiotic standard for poultry in US

The US has developed a new standard for the responsible use of antibiotics in chicken for school lunches.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will verify the Certified Responsible Antibiotic Use (CRAU) standard that was developed by School Food FOCUS (Food Options for Children in the US) and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service Quality Assessment Division will audit poultry companies using either its Process Verified Program or its Quality System Assessment

As per the rules, producers will only be allowed to add antibiotics to the chicken under a veterinarian’s supervision and the antibiotics will have to be administered only to control and treat disease, instead of promoting growth.

CRAU will also apply to chicken being delivered to hospitals and other institutional customers.

The Pew Charitable Trusts said the standard is focused on reducing the amount of antibiotics used in poultry to bring down the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria in food-animal production, which will protect both human and animal health in the long run.

The country’s biggest chicken producer Tyson Foods has become the first company in the country to adopt the standard. Recently, Tyson also announced that it will aim to eliminate the use of human antibiotics in its chicken flocks completely by the end of September 2017.

Pew’s Antibiotic Resistance Project’s senior officer Gail Hansen said: "This new standard will guide producers who want to use antibiotics in the most limited way possible in order to protect animal health, reduce overall antibiotic use and slow the growth of superbugs that threaten human health worldwide."

School Food FOCUS director of strategic development Kathy Lawrence said CRAU has been developed to meet the demand for more sustainably produced food and is aimed at chicken, which is the primary protein source in school lunches.

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Image: The standard will aim at limiting the use of antibiotics in US poultry that are used to promote growth. Photo: courtesy of T Gualberto107/freedigitalphotos.net.